The Patriot Post® · Enes and LeBron: A Tale of Two Citizens
We live in an Age of Entitlement — an age in which the blessings of American Liberty and the benefits of American stuff and the privilege of American citizenship seem free for the taking to millions of illegal immigrants. And given the often-sorry state of affairs in their native lands, it’s hard to blame them for breaking our laws. This is what happens when we offer people free stuff and then open our borders to them.
But then there are those who come to our country the right way, the legal way; those who invest themselves in the detailed and time-consuming process of American citizenship. These folks must sometimes feel like suckers. And, again, who can blame them if they feel disillusioned, even bitter, upon considering that so many millions of others didn’t play by the same rules?
Turkish-born Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter might naturally have belonged in this “bitter” category, but he chose not to be. And, as of yesterday, Kanter is a grateful and naturalized American citizen. Not only that: He officially changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom. He even posted a brief video of himself taking the Oath of Allegiance, after which he picked up a small American flag and waved it back and forth to a round of applause from those in attendance.
What’s with the name, you ask? Judging from the way he comports himself, “Freedom” is who he is and what he stands for. As Fox News reports: “The name change comes as Freedom has spoken out on geopolitical issues concerning China’s human rights abuses, as well as Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan’s fight for freedom. Freedom was born in Turkey but was later exiled over his support for Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish religious cleric living in exile in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.”
Freedom is a multimillionaire. As such, he could live a life of peace and quiet and luxury. But, again, he’s chosen not to. Four years ago, he began receiving death threats for having spoken out against Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He had his Turkish passport canceled because of it.
More recently, he’s spoken out against one of the world’s most famous athletes — an athlete whose geopolitical ignorance and surpassing sense of entitlement stand in stark contrast to Freedom’s thoughtfulness and gratefulness.
We’re speaking of His Royal Wokeness, LeBron James, about whom National Review’s Rich Lowry writes, “The grotesque hypocrisy of the Nike-NBA industrial complex and its biggest star, LeBron James, has been underlined in recent weeks by Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter, who has been on a one-man crusade against the Chinese Communist Party and those too cowardly or greedy to call it out.”
Freedom, then, is the anti-James. And if that were ever in doubt, he made it clear with one of the most devastating social media posts ever undertaken. “Money over Morals for the ‘King,’” he said. “Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss [China] says so. Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?”
Freedom also wears his beliefs on his sneakers, and even there he doesn’t spare King James. On the side of one such shoe is printed, “Hey [King] still researching and getting educated?” which is a direct swipe at James and his mealy-mouthed excuse-making for his brutal benefactors in communist China.
Is this a great country or what?