Enes Kanter Blasts NBA For Encouraging Players To Vote Democratic

Former Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter Freedom slammed the NBA for shutting down on Election Day, when they encouraged players to “vote for a certain party.”

The league announced that there would be no games scheduled on November 8, so that fans wouldn’t be distracted from voting to attend a basketball game. 

“The NBA today announced that no games will be played on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022,” NBA Communications tweeted on Tuesday. “The scheduling decision came out of the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections.”

The NBA today announced that no games will be played on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

The scheduling decision came out of the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections. https://t.co/nFiEHlws0Q

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 16, 2022

Kanter, a current free agent after the Celtics traded him to the Houston Rockets and he was dropped, slammed the NBA for dipping into politics when they told him to tone his political commentary down.

“The NBA’s biggest backer is China — so when they promote Civic Engagement here, do they care to comment about a dictatorship they are profiting off of?” He told Fox News. “The NBA constantly told me ‘we don’t want to get involved in politics’… I guess what they meant to say was ‘we don’t want to upset China.”‘

Kanter’s outspoken criticism of the country’s human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and Tibetians led to the broadcast of Celtics games being banned in China, when he called Chinese President Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator.” 

“I’m here to add my voice and speak out about what is happening in Tibet,” he said in an October social media post last year. “Under the Chinese government’s brutal rule, Tibetan people’s basic rights and freedoms are nonexistent.”

Kanter asserted that the NBA’s November 8 shutdown isn’t as nonpartisan as they advertised. 

“I think this move by the NBA is a great idea, Election Day should be a federal holiday where everyone can go out and vote,” he continued. “The issue though is, that the NBA subliminally encourages players to vote a certain party. I have had coaches lose jobs who expressed conservative values — that’s an issue.”

Marie Finn