Former New York Knicks and Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom responded to attacks on America from a fellow national basketball player, saying that no one in the country should take for granted all the freedoms and prosperity potential we have.
Prior to Independence Day, WNBA Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud published a Twitter thread calling America "trash in so many ways" and claiming the nation "oppresses marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of times."
Kanter Freedom replied at the time that he was heartbroken over her comments, saying he cannot believe how "uneducated" many athletes are about the state of liberty in other countries around the world.
"That’s why I’m offering her or anyone, whenever their season is over, I will buy their ticket – first class, don’t worry – and I would like to take them to some of these regimes out there," he told Fox News. "She just doesn’t know any better, or worse, she’s just hating on this beautiful country."
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Cloud replied, saying she respects Kanter Freedom, but asked he have the same respect for her "lived experience" as a Black gay woman in America.
On "Hannity," Kanter Freedom responded oncemore, saying that he knows firsthand what it's like to be truly targeted and oppressed by one's home country. While Cloud hails from Marple Township, Pa., Kanter Freedom was raised in Turkey.
He said he still has a ₺1,000,000 bounty on his head from Turkish President Recep Erdogan, whom he has called a "dictator" and compared to former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler for his human rights abuses.
"They put my name on Interpol lists. I have 12 arrests warrants for me in less than nine years by the Turkish government," said Kanter Freedom, who added the second half of his surname after becoming a U.S. citizen, in honor of America's freedoms.
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"Everywhere I go, I have to get in touch with the FBI. So that's why I'm trying to tell people how good we have in this country. So we got to do whatever we can to amplify that."
He re-upped his pledge to buy Cloud a first-class ticket to any other nation, including Iran, Russia, China or his homeland of Turkey – saying that in any of them, calling the nation "trash" would be a death sentence.
"If you ever, ever criticize those countries, you'll be hanged," he said. "So that's why I just hope that people can realize how good we have it in this country."
Kanter has said his family has been targeted by the Erdogan government since he began speaking out. Erdogan was also the subject of a failed coup in 2016 he blamed on Fethullah Gulen, an elderly cleric who has lived in voluntary exile in the Poconos for 24 years. Gulen told NPR following the coup that he is against all such operations, and that if he was warned of the conspirators' plan he would tell them they were "committing murder."
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump called Erdogan "a friend" but added that extraditing Gulen at Ankara's behest was "not under consideration."
On "Hannity," Kanter Freedom expounded upon his love for America, saying he spent the nation's birthday in Utah watching patriotic parades and fireworks.
"I was seeing that people were during the parade, people were tearing up, people were crying. And I was going and talking to people. And they were actually wanting to tell me what freedom means," he said.
"I think, you know, freedom – after air, water and food – is the most important thing for human beings. So we've got to do whatever we can to just keep it in our hand and we should not take it for granted."
