Hat tip to Powerline. Read more at the link. Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics is a hero. He stood up to the thuggish, repressive regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his native Turkey. His criticism of Erdogan probably put him in physical danger. Kanter fled Indonesia where he was holding a basketball camp for children, after his manager told him Turkish intelligence agents had been sent to capture him.
Now, Kanter has taken on the mother of all thuggish, repressive regimes — Red China. He released a powerful video (see below) lambasting the Red Chinese regime for its unconscionable treatment of Tibet.
In the two-minute video, Kanter documents China’s reign of "cultural genocide" against Tibet. He calls out Chinese president Xi Jinping, labeling him, correctly, a "brutal dictator."
He does this while wearing a T-shirt featuring an image of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. And he notes that any Tibetan who owns a picture of the Delai Lama faces arrest for that act alone.
Kanter went further. He appeared for Boston’s game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday wearing brightly colored shoes saying "Free Tibet." But Kanter didn’t take the court in that game. He was an un-used reserved in the Celtics’ overtime loss.
The Chinese government’s reaction to Kanter’s video was as swift as it was predictable. The Chinese video-streaming giant Tencent cut the live broadcast of the game between the Celtics and the Knicks. According to the Washington Post, the Tencent Sports app notes that upcoming Celtics games will not be broadcast live. Instead, unlike other NBA games, they will be reported by text and photo — if even that, when the dust settles.
The question now is how the NBA will respond. When Daryl Morey, a team executive, voiced support for freedom in Hong Kong, the NBA kowtowed to Red China. Morey, presumably under pressure, said it was not his intention to offend anyone. The NBA’s enormous Chinese revenue stream was saved.
