Patterico's Pontifications

10/25/2021

Boston Celtics Enes Kanter Continues His Courageous Campaign Against Brutal Oppression

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:22 am



[guest post by Dana]

A little follow-up to the Weekend Open Thread and Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter. Kanter shows no signs of letting up on his justified attacks on China’s President Xi Jinping. On the contrary… If you recall, last week the NBA player tweeted on behalf of the oppressed Tibetan people, addressing his tweet to Brutal dictator Xi Jinping:

Tweets specifically protesting the genocide of the Uyghur people followed. He addressed these to the Heartless Dictator of China while name-checking Muslim leaders in the region for their complicity:

Kanter then implored the public to spread the word about the persecution of the Uyghurs while posting photos of his #FreedomShoes:

Yesterday, Kanter threw down the gauntlet:

More about Kanter’s #FreedomShoes:

Enes Kanter continued his campaign of criticism against China and its president Xi Jinping on Sunday when he wore another controversial pair of shoes, this time with the words “Free China” emblazoned on them, while on the bench for the Boston Celtics against the Houston Rockets in Texas.

It is the third time in the past week Kanter, who did not play in the game, wore shoes featuring an anti-China message. The shoes have been created in conjunction with Shanghai-born, Australia-based dissident cartoonist Badiucao, who had a show in Hong Kong cancelled in 2018.

The first pair, worn on Wednesday, featured a message which read “Free Tibet”. The second, worn on Friday, read “Free Uyghur”. The latest pair featured an image of Kanter holding the head of cartoon character Winnie the Pooh…

Likeness of Winnie the Pooh being compared to Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly banned in China…

The shoes also featured the iconic “Tank Man” scene with the tops of the tanks replaced by Winnie the Pooh heads.

While there has still been no official comment from the NBA regarding Kanter’s tweets, Celtics management voiced support for Kanter’s right to free speech, if not support for his specific campaigns:

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens on Friday voiced his support for center Enes Kanter, whose comments in support of Tibetan freedom on Wednesday led to Celtics games being removed from the Chinese streaming service, Tencent.

“My conversation with Enes was real short and sweet,” Stevens said during his weekly appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub, “and that is we’re always going to support any of our players and their right to freedom of speech and expression. And I think in my experience with the Celtics and the NBA, that’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it’ll continue to be.”

In bitter irony, China just marked its 50th anniversary as a member of the United Nations with President Xi Jinping declaring that China will ‘be a builder of world peace’.

–Dana

27 Responses to “Boston Celtics Enes Kanter Continues His Courageous Campaign Against Brutal Oppression”

  1. Good morning.

    Dana (174549) — 10/25/2021 @ 9:22 am

  2. Mr. Kanter is a great American (assuming he got his citizenship last June, as reported).
    Erdogan revoked his Turkish citizenship because Kanter said things the Turkish dictator didn’t like, so it doesn’t make that there would be Turkish arrest warrants against him.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 10/25/2021 @ 9:42 am

  3. In bitter irony, China just marked its 50th anniversary as a member of the United Nations with President Xi Jinping declaring that China will ‘be a builder of world peace’.

    Well, Hitler brought peace to Western Europe. It was just the warmongers in the US, Russia and England that ruined it, right?

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:08 am

  4. Your take: Enes Kanter speaks out.
    My take: 99.9% of the NBA keeps their heads down.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:10 am

  5. You can NOT buy me.
    You can NOT scare me.
    You can NOT silence me.

    But he can ban him in China.

    He can prevent search engines, when used in China, from returning anything when his name is used

    He can do the same for the Boston Celtics.

    He can do the same for the National Basketball Association.

    He can sue him for libel in the United Kingdom. (not sure he would want to try that)

    He can try to avoid mentioning anything on the Internet available in China that mentions anything that mentions anything that can lead to his name.

    With the idea that people will eventually not know, just like they know nothing of the atrocities committed by Mao from 1944 through the early 1950s. They only talk about the Cultural Revolution now, which is like talking about Stalin’s purges and never mentioning what Lenin and company did.

    And there are crimes that Xi knows were committed that almost nobody is familiar with.

    China;s approach could be called tyranny with Chinese characteristics. The censorship and lies most closely resembles that of the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) after the 1420.

    China stopped exploration of the rest of the world to prevent ideas from contaminating people in China. This spread also to Japan and Korea. They were all “hermit kingdoms”

    In Japan, after 1598, and its failed invasion of Korea and China, they managed to go back from the gun to the sword, and revived the shogunate and made people in Japan forget all about guns until U.S. Commodore Perry opened Japan up in 1853. Then Japan . after 1868, decided they needed to copy something else, and they chose — Germany.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:13 am

  6. Athletes making millions every year protest the gross injustice America visits upon them, yet will say nothing about the injustices genocides that they are complicit in.

    It’s time to turn the screws on China the way we did on the Soviets.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:15 am

  7. He can sue him for libel in the United Kingdom. (not sure he would want to try that)

    I’m thinking QB7.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:16 am

  8. i tried to see if he has a shoe contract, and found this:

    Enes Kanter: Criticism of Turkish Government Preventing Nike Endorsement Deal

    remember Nike’s Kaepernick ad?

    “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

    bullocks

    JF (e1156d) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:17 am

  9. I think the NBA will be looking to buy out Ebes Kanter’s contract. They’ll fire him, om grounds hhe brings the NBA into disrepute, he’ll sue ad they’ll give hima generous settlement, msomewhat more than he would have made playing.

    The NBA also has trouble from the anti-vaxxers.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:22 am

  10. Then Japan . after 1868, decided they needed to copy something else, and they chose — Germany.

    The Meiji Restoration was one of the most amazing periods of national development. In a couple of generations, Japan went from feudal backwater to a regional, if not world, power.

    It’s comparable to what Deng got going after Mao (with a hat tip to Nixon) or the 18th Century for the Brits.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:27 am

  11. I think the NBA will be looking to buy out Ebes Kanter’s contract. They’ll fire him, om grounds he brings the NBA into disrepute

    Ironic that. What do they do when a real star grows a pair?

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:30 am

  12. Regarding free speech and censorship:

    There is a growing push to have governments regulate speech online, something that has up to now been at best indirect, with companies not wanting to offend politicians overmuch. But the complaints that are rising about Facebook and “hate speech” are being met with suggestions that direct regulation of online content should be the government’s business. At the very least regulators should set guidelines for Facebook’s censors.

    This has always been a slippery slope. Facebook’s attempts to censor, however futile, were at least by a private company on the system it developed. But having begun the process, it is open to complaints it’s doing it wrong. If government directs the censorship they go from a private actor to agents of the State. While one might say “What’s wrong with blocking hate speech?” we all know it won’t stop there, nor will “hate speech” be defined narrowly. Or without bias.

    I think Justice Thomas has the right of this (and I am overjoyed that he is not participating in oral arguments). Censorship is a dangerous tool in anyone’s hands, but when government gets involved it’s pernicious.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:44 am

  13. *not participating

    NOW participating. Sheesh!

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:46 am

  14. What do they do when a real star grows a pair?

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 10:30 am

    They will cross that unlikely bridge if they ever get to it.

    Hoi Polloi (ade50d) — 10/25/2021 @ 11:07 am

  15. I think Justice Thomas has the right of this (and I am overjoyed that he is not participating in oral arguments).

    Actually Thomas has been participating in oral arguments as of late:

    Justice Clarence Thomas, who once went a decade without asking a question from the Supreme Court bench, is about to complete a term in which he was an active participant in every single argument.

    Justice Thomas’s switch from monkish silence to gregarious engagement is a byproduct of the pandemic, during which the court has heard arguments by telephone. The justices now ask questions one at a time, in order of seniority.

    Justice Thomas, who joined the court in 1991, goes second, right after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., asking probing questions in his distinctive baritone.
    ……..
    In the telephone arguments, he asked tough questions of both sides and almost always used his allotted few minutes. The idiosyncratic legal views that characterize his frequent concurring and dissenting opinions were largely absent from his questioning, which was measured and straightforward.

    If Justice Thomas’s questions differed from those of his colleagues, it was in their courtesy. He almost never interrupted lawyers, though he asked pointed follow-up questions if there was time left.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:05 pm

  16. Give the guy kudos for courage. He is putting his career at risk.

    It’s not like he can go back to Turkey. It’s also not like he has a Colin K. type of career open to him if his sports career suddenly ends.

    I am curious what the NBA does and what folks like LeBron do. I don’t think sports stars deserve much of a platform to expound on social justice issues. We like them for their jump shots, not their cultural correctness. But if the sports stars feel they must be social justice warriors, I wonder whether they will have any courage about it. It’s easy to rant about white privilege. Will they take a stance that might cost them some money?

    Appalled (1a17de) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:08 pm

  17. https://www.strategypage.com/bookreviews/325.asp

    The Imjin War: Japan’s Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and the Attempt to Conquer China, by Samuel Hawley

    University of California, Berkeley, 2005. Pp. xv, 702 . pp. Illus., maps, tables, notes, biblio., index. $24.95. ISBN:89-954424-2-5 .

    The 1592-98 Imjin War was sixteenth century Asia’s biggest international conflict and a war that set the tone for relations between the three major combatants, Korea, China and Japan, for four centuries. Yet it is a conflict that remains virtually unknown in the West.

    Even though they did it again some 315 to 350 years later. But the writers didn’t know about it.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:09 pm

  18. Here’s an opportunity for a businessman: I just learned that, in a pet store in northern England, you can buy cat toys modeled on Donald Trump, “Czar” Putin, and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon. It seems to me that there should be a growing market in the United States for a cat toy modeled on “Emperor” Xi Jinping.

    And I think most dogs would enjoy chewing on a properly designed chew toy, modeled on Xi, too.

    You could start by selling them outside the Boston Garden.

    (Would Amazon help you sell such toys? I doubt it, but this is something that can be done without the help of a large corporation.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:30 pm

  19. I am certain he is sincere, but Enes Kanter has picked a politically popular issue. It is unlikely that Tibet (or the Uyghurs) will be free any time soon (if ever). China and the CCP will be around a long time after Kanter is out of the NBA. No country is going to break relations over this. I would be surprised if the US (alone) boycotted the upcoming Olympics over this or any other issue.

    In addition, some in MAGAWorld support the Chinese regarding the Uyghurs, as they are Muslim. A sampling and more of their views.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:38 pm

  20. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:05 pm

    Yeah, see the correction.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:52 pm

  21. In addition, some in MAGAWorld support the Chinese regarding the Uyghurs, as they are Muslim

    I bet some still support Hitler, whom Trump admires.

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:55 pm

  22. Some months ago, I decided I would make my own small protest against “Emperor” Xi. And so I ordered three “Free Tibet” bumper stickers through Amazon.

    I plan to offer them to prominent people who prefer Chinese money to freedom for others. So, for example, I plan to send the first letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, offering him one — if he will display it prominently.

    I think it rather unlikely that he will accept that small gift, and so I am thinking about who should get that offer next.

    Any suggestions?

    (I assume, by the way, that all — OK, nearly all — of you are already avoiding buying Chinese products, where possible.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1) — 10/25/2021 @ 1:06 pm

  23. Jeff Bezos

    Kevin M (ab1c11) — 10/25/2021 @ 1:53 pm

  24. Doesn’t he understand america is about the golden rule. those with the gold rule especially in sports. Lebron james knows this black lives matter not oppressed minorities in china. This coulds cost the nba money! Be a good american and remember our motto “Greed is Good!”

    asset (2230e0) — 10/25/2021 @ 1:56 pm

  25. How about a Kanter James debate on ethics?

    mg (8cbc69) — 10/25/2021 @ 3:45 pm

  26. Kevin M @Justice Thomas.

    I had thought that what you said meant that he had stopped particpating again once they resumed in person oral arguments,

    Appalled (1a17de) — 10/25/2021 @ 12:08 pm

    Will they take a stance that might cost them some money?

    I think he’s been advised that, if the NBA took some action against him, he might make some money and that’s why he doubled down. Not sure, of course.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/26/2021 @ 3:06 am

  27. 21 This is the very opposite of the truth. Fred Trump went out of his way to be friendly toward Jews, renting only to Jews and “executives” and concealed his German origins. (anyway, his father had been kicked out of Germany in 1905) Donald Trump has also been friendly to Jews.

    Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 10/28/2021 @ 8:48 am


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0829 secs.