Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter called for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Olympics to protest human rights abuses in the country.
Kanter said the human rights violations in China are “heartbreaking,” and it’s “sad” that there has not been a single athlete or country boycotting the Olympics in protest. He said athletes should boycott the Olympics even if their countries do not.
LEBRON JAMES BLASTS ENES KANTER’S CRITICISM OF HIS ‘SAD & DISGUSTING’ CHINA TIES
“The important thing is we cannot have these games happening where there is a genocide happening while we are speaking right now,” he said during an interview with CNN Tuesday.
Kanter defended his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are currently set to take place in Beijing, to move to another country. He also appeared to acknowledge that his tenure at the NBA may be limited by his outspokenness against China.
“You see so many actors like John Cena, so many athletes, or so many singers and rappers are scared to say a word because they care too much about their deals or their business going wrong with China,” he said. “To me, human rights and basic rights are more important than any deal you could offer me.”
Kanter said he planned to play basketball for another five or six more years if he is allowed to. His contract with the Boston Celtics expires in a year. He said he has gotten phone calls about his activism and pointed out that he never received calls like that for his criticisms of Turkey.
The basketball player said he hopes the NBA follows the Women’s Tennis Association as a model for how to respond to issues with China.
“I believe not just the NBA, but NFL, NHL, MLS, MLB, every organization should take notes of what WTA did,” he said.
Last week, the WTA threatened to cut off business with China unless tennis player Peng Shuai was accounted for. Shuai had her social media account scrubbed and went missing from the public eye following public accusations she made about being sexually assaulted by a former high-ranking Chinese government official.
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Kanter also took aim at Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James for his reluctance to criticize China, as well as former NBA star Michael Jordan for not doing enough for the black community.
A bipartisan group of political leaders has called for the relocation of the 2022 Olympics, with President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo among those expressing support for a boycott if the games are held in China.
