Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom went against the widespread groupthink narrative on coronavirus vaccines, asserting on Wednesday that people should have the freedom to decide if they want to get the jab.
Speaking on The Will Cain Podcast, Freedom detailed how a teammate confronted him for initially urging people to get vaccinated.
“He basically like called me out. He’s like ‘listen, you just changed your last name. That is what you said on that interview is everything you’re against, everything you stand for.’ And I stopped for a second, I think I was like ‘you know what, you’re right,'” Freedom said.
“You know, people should obviously vaccine yes, you know, save lives … but people should have freedom to choose if they want to get a vaccine,” Freedom, who recently tested positive for the virus despite being vaccinated and boosted, said.
On that note, the basketball star said he does not believe that NBA players will support further intrusion via a booster mandate:
“Players will not do a [booster] mandate, I believe. Because players are going to stand up and say ‘this is against freedom,’” he proclaimed. “I know some of my really close friends around the league, there’s no way you can make them do anything like that because that’s their body, that’s their choice.
(Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
“I know some of the players like the one that I talked to, there’s no way you can make him do anything and that’s his body and you have to respect that,” Freedom said, adding that his teammates have his back “no matter what” and continue to support him speaking out on prominent issues such as the genocidal Chinese regime.
“One of the teammates of LeBron [James] came up to me and said, ‘keep doing what you’re doing. What you’re doing is right. Don’t give up.’ I was very shocked,” he added.
Last month, Freedom made it clear that he would use his position to call out “all the dictatorships around the world.”
“And I’m going to get them one by one,” he said.
Most recently, on Thursday, Freedom called out “parasite” Elon Musk for opening a Tesla showroom in China.
“Shame on @elonmusk for supporting the Genocide. Shortly after the U.S passes the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act-aimed at stopping slave labor Elon Musk turns a blind eye to the Cultish Chinese Communist Party’s abuses & has opened a @Tesla showroom in #Xinjiang,” he said. “What a parasite”: