Chinese state-run news outlet Global Times accused former Boston Celtics star Enes Kanter Freedom of being an operative for the CIA.
An article posited that Freedom’s anti-China rhetoric and recent meeting with a top agency official, might mean that he’s an official asset. The article also questioned if Kanter had already been spying on other athletes for the agency.
“A recent post by Kanter on his social media account might explain why he cares more about attacking China than playing basketball,” the Daily Caller translated. “When Kanter said he’d had a ‘great conversation’ with the U.S. government spy chief and thanked Burns for his ‘friendship,’ was Kanter behaving as a basketball player or a spy who has been recruited by the CIA?”
If Kanter’s a spy, he’s clearly terrible at his job, because the former NBA player posted a candid photo of himself and CIA Director William J. Burns on April 30, in which he thanked him for his friendship.
Had a great conversation with the
Director of @CIA William J. BurnsThank you for your friendship pic.twitter.com/qGGHympg4o
— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) April 30, 2022
Kanter has a history of calling out China for their horrific human rights abuses. He blasted Chinese President Xi Jinping for restricting the freedom of Tibetians in two-minute long Twitter video last October, which cause the country to stop broadcasting Celtics games.
“My message to the Chinese government is ‘Free Tibet.’ Tibet belongs to Tibetans. I am here to add my voice and speak out about what is happening in Tibet,” he said. “Under the Chinese government’s brutal rule, Tibetan people’s basic rights and freedoms are nonexistent.”
Dear Brutal Dictator XI JINPING and the Chinese Government
Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people!#FreeTibet pic.twitter.com/To4qWMXK56
— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) October 20, 2021
Kanter was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his activism, but dropped from the NBA after a suspicious trade to the Houston Rockets, who immediately waived him.
The former player was prepared for the league’s retaliation. “They’re going to do everything they can to, I believe, not sign me now,” he told PBS’s Margaret Hoover a day before being cut.
wpDiscuz