Boston center Enes Kantor just became a US citizen after 6 year wait with green card and simultaneously changed his last name to "freedom" so now that will be seen on the back of his basketball jersey. That jersey will not be seen on TV in China since China is blocking his games because he has been critical of Chinese behavior toward Uighurs and other ethnic minorities (like Tibet). (that picture is from when NBA was playing inside the bubble and players put promotional messages on their jerseys. Enes promoted freedom back then too.)
Enes has been critical of Lebron James who has been an apologist and defender of China. Lebron sells a lot of Nike shoes and swag in mainland China so has an economic interest. China and the NBA have had conflicts before. Back in 2019 Daryl Morey GM of Houston Rockets tweeted support for HK that angered China. China blocked TV of preseason games that year. The NBA gets something like $8B revenue from Chinese operations, so when china says jump, the NBA says how high. Lebron called Morey "misinformed" and "not educated". Shaq supported Morey and free speech.
The last NBA player to make a promotional name change like that was Ron Artest who changed his name to "meta world peace". Maybe he can become a spokesman for facebook. He used the name first.
It will be interesting to see how Kantor's career goes from here with his pro-freedom statements costing his team (Celtics) owners and NBA league revenue. Apparently it is OK to criticize the US inside the US (constitutionally protected speech). Criticizing China is not tolerated in China.
JR
