Nadene Goldfoot
Enes Kanter Freedom, b: May 20,1992, is a Muslim American professional basketball player who is currently a free agent. Born in Switzerland to Turkish parents, he was raised in Turkey and moved to the United States as a teenager. Freedom was selected as the third overall pick of the 2011 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz. A center, Freedom has played for five NBA teams since entering the league in 2011. Between 2008 and 2015, he represented the Turkish national team in international play.
| Listed height | 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) |
|---|---|
| Listed weight | 250 lb (113 kg) |
I got excited about him after viewing yesterday's JBS presentation of August 2nd highlighting him. He's in Jerusalem and there is able to have a group of Muslim, Jewish, Christian, children together talking peace while playing basketball. This is fantastic! He's there for this very purpose, something he's always wanted to do.
I'm always interested in how parents would have brought up such a nice person. His father, Mehmet Kanter, received his M.D. from the University of Zurich. The family then returned to Turkey, where Kanter grew up. Mehmet Kanter became a professor of histology and genetics at Trakya University. Kanter's mother, Gülsüm Kanter, is a nurse. Kanter has three younger siblings: two brothers (including basketball player Kerem Kanter) and one sister.
New York Jewish Week — At the Brooklyn Amity School, a majority-Muslim private school in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, high school students are taking part in a new Holocaust education initiative with an unlikely ambassador: NBA center and free agent Enes Kanter Freedom. Over the last couple of years, he has become outspoken about human rights violations in Turkey and other parts of the world, including China, whose treatment of the Muslim Uighur people has been described by the US State Department as genocide. The Holocaust education program being taught at Amity is underwritten by The Blue Card, a non-profit that assists Holocaust survivors, and the Turkish Cultural Center of New York. The curriculum was created by Mehnaz Afridi, a professor at Manhattan College who directs its Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith Education Center.
There it is; parents are a doctor and a nurse, educated people.
Kanter added "Freedom" for his last name himself.
Starting in second grade, Kanter attended Hizmet-affiliated schools, part of the Gülen movement in Turkey. He lived in Ankara and then moved to Istanbul to play professional basketball as a teen.
At the age of 17, Kanter moved to the United States to play basketball. He attended Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada, and then Mountain State Academy in Beckley, West Virginia; neither school allowed him to play high school basketball because of his contract with Nike while he played basketball professionally. Kanter then attended Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, California, where he was able to play basketball for a season.
Since I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, I see something exciting. He played for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2019. He returned to Portland after playing with the Boston Celtics from 2019-2020. Then he returned to Portland from 2020-2021, and after that returned again to Boston from 2021-2022.
It was 50 years ago that the Trail Blazers practiced in SW Portland, the center of Jews then. The gym at Mittleman Jewish Community Center was custom built for the team in 1971.
Kyle Rotenberg played a lot of basketball at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center in the 1970s. Which is understandable, since his dad, Irv, practically ran the weight room there and the players he often would play with were the pros who played for the new team in town: the Portland Trail Blazers. My cousin, Don Eichman, practically lived there, playing basketball till he was 83, and stopped just before COVID closed down gyms in Portland. He played all over the USA in tournaments for seniors. He's still angry about having to stop playing. It's ruined the rhythm of his daily living.
Kanter said just recently that he thinks he is being blackballed by the NBA. Enes Kanter Freedom thinks there’s a connection between his free agency and his outspoken criticism of the NBA’s relationship with China. He protested China with his sneakers in NBA games.. Did he wear Nikes instead? Kanter spoke with the Israeli outlet Walla, and the interview was translated through Google by Larry Brown Sports. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking with the New York Times this past March, denied that Kanter is being blackballed.
The basketball star known for playing for the Boston Celtics and
Portland Trailblazers is in Jerusalem for his Enes Freedom basketball
camp promoting coexistence. He talks peace while playing the game.
As far as I can see, it was part of a bigger plan. What he is doing now will never pay off financially like he had made with the NBA, just pocket change, but it is a far, far, greater act than playing in front of an audience for profit. Anything someone like him, an icon that males look up to, who promotes peace among different religions, is special, and to do it in Jerusalem is giving me goose-bumps. It was fate that brought you together for a basketball camp.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enes_Kanter_Freedom
JBS TV program highlighting Kanter Freedom with Teisha Bader
https://nypost.com/2022/08/02/enes-kanter-freedom-im-being-blackballed-by-nba/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/nba-star-enes-kanter-freedom-brings-holocaust-education-to-muslim-school-in-brooklyn/
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