Tucker Carlson Keeps Calling Enes Kanter Freedom an “NBA Star.” Ha!

By any estimation, Enes Kanter Freedom is one of the most politically involved athletes to ever play in the NBA. That was true before he became a recurrent figure on MAGA airwaves, appearing on Fox News outlets to grouse about all the usual 2023 grievances. Freedom has come out strongly against trans athlete integration in sports, the NBA’s commercial investment in China, the cultural legacy of LeBron James, and more. (He was also a guest on Tucker Carlson’s show in 2021 to formally elaborate on why he decided to add “Freedom” to his surname.)

But back in the mid-2010s—which is to say, back when Freedom was still getting paid to play professional basketball for teams like the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder—he was hugely outspoken about far more bipartisan issues; namely, the increasingly autocratic reign of Turkish president Recep Erdoğan, to the point that the Erdoğan administration famously attempted to extradite him back to Turkey in 2019. (Freedom grew up in Ankara, the country’s capital, and hasn’t been home in years for fear of being arrested.)

In his radicalization, Freedom is comparable to other young, conscious, and righteously suspicious celebrities who’ve become indoctrinated by the tokenizing conservative media ecosystem. It seems extremely likely that Freedom possessed exactly zero hard-line stances about trans rights, for example, until he found himself enmeshed in the Carlson orbit. (The Daily Beast also reported that Freedom was courting endorsement deals with Chinese companies back during his playing career, which illustrates just how quickly his tune has changed.) But I digress: Freedom is absolutely entitled to his own opinions and his right to express them. And now I must express mine: Freedom always kind of sucked at pro basketball. He’s never—never—deserved to be called a superior talent, or even an above-average starter. Anyone who calls him an “NBA star” has no idea what they’re talking about.

I say this because whenever Enes Kanter Freedom is introduced by his new cadre of conservative grifter compatriots, on Fox News and elsewhere, they speak of him with celestial Jordan-esque reverence—as if this guy was routinely roasting dudes on the court. “Enes Kanter Freedom gave up a likely Hall of Fame career in order to fight for human rights in China,” tweeted the hallucinogenic MAGA nutcase Nick Adams early last year. “Ex-NBA Star Enes Kanter Freedom Teases He’s Eyeing a Run for Congress,” reads a hilarious Fox headline from April. “He is still at the top of his game. Now, the NBA is disgracefully punishing him for his criticism of the brutality of the Chinese Communist Party,” tweeted Kentucky GOP Rep. Andy Barr, who I’m confident has never watched a second of Freedom playing basketball.

You get the idea. Enes Kanter Freedom last played in the NBA during the 2021 season, where he languished as a deep backup for the Boston Celtics. If you are steeped within the corrosive brain-rot of conservative airways, you’d be led to believe that the reason Freedom’s career came to a halt was due to a conniving globalist cabal protecting its business interests in mainland China—and Freedom’s vocal criticism of the Xi Jinping regime put that at risk. (In the months before he went Full MAGA, Freedom was emblazoning his sneakers with pro-Uyghur sentiments.) It’s certainly true that the NBA has been feckless in its dealings in China in the past, but buddy, that’s definitely not the reason Freedom has found himself out of that job!

Enes Kanter Freedom played for six basketball teams across a 10-year stint in the NBA. Over the course of that career, he averaged 11 points per game, alongside eight rebounds, and was not often trusted by his coaches to handle anything more than a reserve role. (Generally speaking, you need to start in order to be considered a star.) This is mostly rooted in Freedom’s reputation as one of the worst defenders in the league—just an absolute sieve when forced to guard smaller, faster players. In 2019, Bleacher Report’s analytics determined him to be dead last in defensive metrics among centers, using nouns like “turnstile,” “molasses,” and “porosity” to describe his play. (The top comment on a YouTube lowlight reel documenting Freedom’s defense incapability reads, “He loves Freedom that much, he’s giving his opponents all the freedom they need.” Ouch.) This became something of a meme within the greater NBA community, to the point that Devin Booker, who is a much better basketball player than Freedom, once described the Phoenix Suns’ offensive strategy—in so many words—as running “pick n roll” at Enes “every time.” Similarly, in a viral clip from the 2017 season, after one of Freedom’s textbook fuck-ups, Freedom’s coach Billy Donovan appeared to mouth “Can’t play Kanter” to his assistants.

Freedom’s lack of accolades emphasizes this point. He appeared in zero All-Star games. He didn’t garner any MVP votes, nor was he named to either the First, Second, or Third All-NBA teams, in any of his seasons. (I don’t think I need to add this, but Freedom also failed to make the yearly All-Defensive honors.) Instead, Freedom retired with an entirely respectable journeyman basketball career, banking more than $100 million, which is about as good as anyone can hope for in an industry this tough. His next journey, as a disaffected NBA veteran who can be reliably dusted off whenever Fox producers find a new reason to be annoyed at LeBron James, will surely continue to be lucrative. I wish him all the best, and sincerely hope that he learns to tune out some of the charlatans in his ear—even if they might be the only people on the planet calling him a basketball star.

There is a lesson here about the lengths we’ll go to for attention once we’re past our prime. Some washed-up NBA players take their talents to Europe for a few more paychecks; others break bread with Tucker Carlson. Freedom is well on his way to mastering the contours of being a conservative talking head, but it’s too bad he never learned how to cover a pick and roll.