Then the fallout began. China canceled all broadcasts of Celtics games for the entire year. Pressure from the NBA mounted, too.
“I didn’t even play that game,” Freedom recalled. “After the game, obviously they put so much pressure on me. The players association, NBPA, called me and said, ‘You can never wear those shoes again.’ They pressured me so much and I was like, ‘I promise you, I’m not gonna wear ‘Free Tibet’ shoes ever again.’”
Freedom wore a pair of “Free Uighur” shoes the next game.
“I never said I’m not gonna wear ‘Free Uighur’ shoes,” Freedom said. “I just said I’m not going to wear ‘Free Tibet’ ones.”
The backlash set in again — death threats, constant notifications, trolls — and this time it wasn’t televised NBA games that were banned, but, as he points out, Freedom himself.
The 30-year-old former star has not played since February of last year and is now a free agent. He has reason to believe he will never play in the NBA again.
“After the first game, one of the players came to me and said, ‘You know this is your last year in the NBA, right? Because you talk about China, you talk about Nike. You’re never going to get another contract, so just have fun with it. I hope you win a championship, but this is your last season,’” Freedom said.
“I can play another six years. I’m healthy. My body feels healthy. But right now, unfortunately, I talked to many people and there is not going to be an NBA for me because I believe that I’ve been blackballed … because they’re scared that any team that is gonna sign me is going to get a lot of backlash from the Chinese government,” he stated.
The cost of courage
Freedom’s activism did not start with human rights abuses in China but with a corruption scandal within his native Turkey. What began as a conversation on Freedom’s high-profile Twitter account began to change the situation in Turkey.
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“Even one simple tweet can affect so much,” recalled Freedom after this incident. It inspired him to start paying more attention to his country — and to grow more outspoken. His witness came with a cost.
“The things that I talked about [began] affecting me and my family,” Freedom said. “You know my father was a scientist. He got fired from his job. My sister went to medical school for six years. She’s searching, not finding jobs.
“I think the saddest one was my little brother because he was playing basketball — he wanted to be like his big brother. He was getting kicked out of every team because he had the same last name and he asked me about it.
“He was too young to understand.”
Pressure mounted when his father was jailed, even though the family repeatedly informed the Turkish government that they had no connection with Freedom, who was in the United States.
Ultimately, his father published a letter online disowning his son on behalf of the family and begging him to change his last name. Years later, after he became a US citizen, he chose the name Freedom.
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