'THIS IS BIGGER THAN BASKETBALL' Enes Kanter Freedom on China, the NBA, and free speech.

• Author: Greene, Noor

ENES KANTER FREEDOM knows firsthand how important it is that citizens be allowed to criticize their governments.

Born in Zurich, the basketball player spent most of his young life in Turkey--a place to which he can no longer safely return. Freedom, who now lives in the U.S. and has played for a decade in the NBA, made a name for himself as an outspoken critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. His family has been targeted for retribution, and Freedom can no longer safely contact them. But he hasn't slowed his roll, choosing to criticize the basketball world's close ties with the Chinese Communist Party, which carries out some of today's most heinous atrocities: interning Uyghur ethnic minorities in prison camps, stripping Hong Kongers of their most fundamental civil liberties, surveilling political dissidents, and censoring speech. But China is filled with basketball fans who give the NBA a lot of money--and full of factories, possibly even those using forced Uyghur labor, where athletic companies like Nike produce theirshoes.

When Freedom was growing up in Van and Ankara, it was a tough sell getting his family to support his basketball dreams. "I want you to be a good student before being a good basketball player," his dad told him. His dad, a scientist, and his mom, a nurse, were all about education. "They wanted me to go to school, then focus on nothing else, just studying all day--until I made my first check. After that, they're like, 'OK. You're playing basketball from now on.'" He moved to the U.S. in 2009 to attend a California prep school for one year before signing with the University of Kentucky, where he studied for a short time before the Utah Jazz drafted him in 2011.

Since then, Freedom has also played for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the New York Knicks, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Boston Celtics. In February, the Celtics traded Freedom to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets waived him, releasing Freedom before his contract was over. Freedom claims this was due to his outspoken criticism of the Chinese government, something NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has denied.

During his time in the NBA, Freedom has feuded with players like LeBron James, criticizing him for his "money over morals" attitude--in Freedom's words--and James' reluctance to criticize the NBA's relationship with China. "Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice," tweeted Freedom last year. "They really do 'shut up & dribble' when Big Boss [Chinese flag emoji] says so," he continued. "Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?"

Freedom says he got little pushback from the NBA when he was speaking out about the Turkish government's atrocities. But his commentary on China has drawn the ire of both NBA higher-ups and star players.

In June, Reason's Noor Greene spoke with Freedom about his new last name, his antagonism toward companies and players who cozy up to China, and the Turkish government's enmity toward free speech.

Reason: You said in one of your interviews the name Freedom was inspired by a visit that you made to the U.S. in 2009.

Freedom: In 2009, I was going to prep school for the first time. We had a really tough practice. After the practice, we were all sitting around in the locker room checking our phones. Back then, we all had Facebook. So I saw one of my teammates criticize the president and was very scared for him. I was like, "Dude, what are you doing?"

He's like, "What happened?" I was like, "I saw your post." And he's like, "OK." And I was like, "Well, you might be in jail tomorrow." He started to laugh and he was like, "This is not Turkey. This is America."

He started to explain to me about freedom of speech, religion, expression, protest. I still didn't get it. If you did that in Turkey, you'd be in jail the...