Enes Kanter: They Put a $500,000 BOUNTY on My Head, For Speaking the Truth | DSH #1565

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As a Muslim, I support my Palestinian brothers and sisters, but at the same time, there are thousands of innocent people being killed on Israel's side as well.

And people get mad all the time.

And I'm like, you know what?

I care about the human rights aspect of it.

People behind the table are the ones that are giving the orders, but the innocent people on the streets are the ones that get hurt.

Those kids on both sides, those civilians, mothers, father, they have nothing to do with this war, right?

But they're the one that gets hurt.

It breaks my heart, man.

We gotta do something to like start building bridges, not walls.

Yeah.

Okay, guys, got NS Cantor Freedom out here in Las Vegas.

Glad I can make this happen, man.

I know you've been going through a lot.

So thanks for coming on.

No, thank you for having me, man.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, you've had quite the last few years, huh?

Yeah, it was a very difficult one.

Very lonely.

road I will say for sure but um I'm just trying to fight through it man yeah you know any regrets looking back or are you proud of where you're I'm actually proud of it because the thing is like um my whole life anything that i've ever talked about was not politics it was pure human rights um i think that's the one message that is above politics and i really wanted everyone to support it everyone to care about cared about it so um i mean it cost me a lot cost me you know my career millions and tens of millions of dollars and most importantly my family wow but i mean i think what I'm doing is bigger than that.

And I'm sure you're going to say, like, well, what's bigger than your family?

Right.

I mean, I think to be the voice of innocent people, to be the voice of all those innocent people who don't have a voice, I think is definitely matters to me more than anything.

Yeah.

Well, respect, man, because not a lot of professional athletes will speak out, you know?

And I can understand why.

I mean, it's important because like the athletes are like pretty much like, especially these days with all the like the social media and apps and like all whatever, like, I think athletes are like the, pretty much like the educators like teachers of our society right millions of kids out there watching you and idolizing you so

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Okay, Chad, today you're gonna drive the all-electric Toyota BZ.

But my electric vehicle phobia, I'm not ready, Dr.

Ross.

I believe in you.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

We're inside it.

Try to take deep breaths, okay?

Move the ventilated seats.

They're touching me.

You can do this, Chad.

Drive the car.

How do you feel, Chad?

I feel cured.

Woohoo!

I'm doing it.

I'm doing it.

The all-electric BZ.

One drive can change your mind.

Toyota, let's go places.

I feel like we just, we gotta just put the right things out there.

Absolutely.

So, I want to take it back to childhood because you grew up in Turkey, right?

I did.

And you saw a lot going up.

So, you know, growing up in Turkey, in the Middle East, I would say it was a very difficult childhood because if you're a politician in Turkey and if you want to be elected again, you do a couple things.

You attack America, you attack Christian people, you attack the West, and you attack people.

So, and the base is so uneducated.

They're like, wow, look at our leader.

He's standing tall against America, tall against Christians, tall against people.

That's what for him.

So that was the case when I was growing up.

I was nine years old.

I went downstairs to play with my friends.

And I remember, like, my friends that were not even teenagers, they were burning American flags.

They were breaking crosses.

And I'm like, I asked one of my best friend, I'm like, like, dude, what are you doing?

Well, he said, we should hate America.

We should hate the Christians.

We should hate the west they're evil he gave me a flag to burn it he gave me a flag he gave me a lighter and he said burn it i looked down i'm like this is not the right thing to do i threw the flag down i ran upstairs to my mom i'm like mom my friends are telling me to hate america i hate the west hate christian people what do i do my mom said

I'm not going to tell you what to do, but do not hate anyone before you meet him.

So that day, I gave a big promise to my mom.

I was like, mom, I promise I'm not going to hit anyone before I meet him.

Wow.

So growing up, the environment, I mean,

this doesn't happen in Turkey, but

many countries in the Middle East, in schools, front of classes, you have an American flag.

And if you don't step on this flag, you're not allowed to attend the class.

Holy crap.

And also like what I say is like people actually get like, gets like very like...

Shocked.

Shocked.

But

it's all over the internet.

Wow, I didn't know that.

So, and if you don't step on those flags, you're really not allowed to attend the class and you will get bullied the rest of the school year.

Wow.

So,

growing up in Turkey, it was very difficult.

When I was 17 years old, my dad was like, Enough is enough.

You're going to America to get your education and play basketball.

I even remember asking my dad, I was like, Dad, you really want me to go to the devil's nest?

And he's like, Go and see it yourself.

So, that was the first time I actually came here.

And then I

was

17.

okay so i was just like didn't really know any better um i remember my first uh practice high school practice um i walked in the locker room we had a really good practice and after the practice two of my teammates tried to have a conversation with me they said hey man like we know that you're muslim um if you want we can take you to a mosque and we can go get some halal food and i'm like I turned around and left the locker room because I just didn't know what they were trying to do.

You were shocked.

And I remember the promise.

I came back.

I was like, let's go.

They were so respectful, man.

They took me to a mosque.

They even took their shoes off.

And then they took me to go get some halal food.

That two teammates

was

the first two people that put like a little question mark in my head.

And I started to question everything.

I'm like, well, I thought they were evil.

They didn't try to convert me.

They didn't try to be harassed.

They didn't try to harass me or anything, you know?

So with that two question mark in my head, i'm like you know what i gotta be open-minded from now on wow that is crazy yeah it's crazy but that goes in every country i feel like in america we're taught to hate certain countries right certain leaders yep they paint them as the villain yeah so

like i said again like um i'm like telling people like just don't hate anyone man before you meet them like i remember my first time meeting with a

People, you know, I remember I had a, I had this friend.

She invited me for a Shabbat dinner.

As soon as she said Shabbat, I hang up the phone to her face.

And then I remembered the promise.

I called my friend.

I'm like, listen, man, I'm going to go to my friend's house who is.

And he's like, are you crazy?

You don't go to Shabbat dinner.

They eat babies.

They drink bulaz.

You're not going to be a good Muslim if you ever go.

I was like, listen, I got a promise.

I gave a promise to my mom.

So I went to her house.

It was so amazing, man.

They were treated me so well.

And it was like many things that like Islam and

very similar.

So some of the things that they do was like, I was very shocked actually.

And when I got in my car after that Shabbat dinner, I started to get very emotional because there are millions of kids in the Middle East growing up anti-Semitic, anti-West, anti-American, anti-Christian, just because of those hate speeches coming from those governments.

Wow.

And you look at the war now and you wonder, like, how much of that has been programmed

from the start, right?

Yeah.

So that that breaks my heart, man.

I mean, we keep, you know, we're talking about so, like, as a muslim right of course i i support my palestinian brothers and sisters but at the same time there are thousands of people innocent people are you know being killed on israel side as well right you know this is what i say and people get mad all the time and i'm like you know what i care about the human rights aspect of it you know

people behind the table are the one that giving the orders but the innocent people on the streets are the one that gets hurt those kids on both sides those civilians mothers father they have nothing to do with this war right but they're the one that you know gets hurt and i'm sure like you've seen all these videos on both sides yeah so it breaks my heart man um

we gotta do something to like start building

bridges not walls yeah yeah it's terrible and these days with social media you just scroll on your twitter you see all these graphic images and like there's so much misinformation out there like you don't know what to believe or not right you know ai is just exactly like if i'm a kid if i go on tick tock i'm brainwashed.

If I go on Twitter, I'm brainwashed.

Like, because you don't know what to trust or what to believe or not.

Right.

You know?

And the first thing you see,

whatever is in your algorithm, that's what you're going to believe.

100%.

Rest in peace to Charlie Kirk after what happened yesterday.

I think the world will never be the same from that.

I mean, that video, man, was definitely one of the most horrific and disgusting I've ever seen in my life.

Listen,

that person, I actually met him back in, you know, Mar-a-Lago, and he said, well, finally, I see someone that's taller taller than me yeah he's tall yeah he's very tall but like before anything I like you agree with him or you don't agree with him before anything man before his political views he's a father he is

he's a husband he's a man of faith

and all he did was actually go to these college campuses and respectfully with with with respect to debate college kids right you know I mean you agree with him or you don't agree with him but like we don't

we don't have any kind of like political, you know, what do you call it, political crime, political hate

in our society.

We should not have any kind of that kind of hate in our society, man.

Like,

like, think about like this man has two kids.

This man has a wife.

Like, think about how they are going to feel.

But, I mean, I think his legacy, his legacy is going to go on.

He will, yeah.

Um, you know, a lot of people loved him, hated him, whatever.

But, like, he he did a lot of a lot of things uh in in in america you know it felt like an attack on free speech and you you grew up in a country where you weren't allowed to have speech so you've seen that side and how it can go it breaks my heart man because like when i look at america right now like when i was in turkey right um obviously i had this like

Like everybody was seeing like how horrible America is and how devil, whatever.

But after I came to America, I'm like, wow, like this is a country that stands with freedom and democracy.

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And human rights and free speech and freedom of religion, right?

And now, like, when I see for the last, like,

like three, four, whatever years, it just turned out to be like Turkey.

Yeah.

You know, that's crazy.

And it breaks my heart, man, because this is America and we got to whatever we can to save America.

I understand we have two sides, two different parties, and different political views.

But like, people need to understand we only have one America and we got to do whatever we can to come together and fight for this country.

So, um,

what makes me sad is like, you want to like get some kind of news, right?

And you turn on the TV and you see like the one side is attacking the other side, other side is attacking the other side.

But like we got to understand like there are a lot of kids out there watching us and idolizing us.

And now they are starting to learn to hate the other side.

Absolutely.

So we just got to somehow come together, man, and just...

and just start like thinking about America, not just our side.

Yeah.

On your Wikipedia, it says you want to run for Congress.

Is that true?

still true it is it is true because i mean act

you know act being an activist is good and i think like i do make a lot of like uh i believe impacts and stuff but i think if you want to make some real changes i'm talking about like then government level and actually like start taking actions i feel like i i need to be in a in congress i think it's a little too early right now like a lot of things that i'm uh working on on and i mean off the court on the court is not really the case anymore but um you see you're still 33 you can still play i'm young man i'm in good shape i'm healthy uh but unfortunately some of the things that are happening i'm sure the whoever is watching is knowing what's going on but uh you think that will be a permanent thing or do you think they'll change their stance the nba i'll tell you this more people watch america uh more people watch nba games in uh china than american population last wow so like this is what was happening like i played in so many different teams i played with some amazing players like i'm talking about like like hall of famers right yeah like

like few months before the season ended i remember like we were sitting down in a locker room and not only one team like many teams like the players were like

they were planning their china trip

and i'm like i'm like dude like you're gonna you're literally going through like a really tough season you have injuries you have all that stuff like wouldn't you want to go to like a vacation with your family and spend time with your kids and all that stuff he's like no no no no no i gotta make money first right and then boom this as soon as as the season over, they were going to China.

And I was confused.

I was like, I was always trying to understand why.

Yeah.

But then, once, like, you know, my whole thing happened with China, I'm like, well, there you go.

There it is.

So, was China basically covering their flight and their hotel and everything and giving them money for sponsorship deals?

Like, how did it work with?

I mean, like, think about this: billions of people

in China.

And then, actually, the most, I think like the NBA is the one, maybe the most watched sports in China.

So, think about like the like the shoe deals, jersey sales and all the kind of endorsements that they could get from China.

Like I got a question.

India obviously have more people, right?

Or like I'm like another country, I don't know, Indonesia.

You don't see any player going to Indonesia and post it all over their Twitter or

India, right?

Why China?

It's all about money and business for them.

You know?

And I'm like, people are people then go to India.

Then go to, I don't know, go go somewhere go indonesia go somewhere another country that population is like over five six well whatever

a million but like no it's all about the money um

i mean i don't want to say i kind of understand it because like

i think china is definitely committing the biggest genocide in our

in our time that we're seeing right now.

Wow.

We're talking about like two, three million Uyghurs are in concentration camp.

We're talking about Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese people.

It's so funny because when I started to talk about these, like all these problems are happening back in China,

many of my teammates walk after me in a locker room and they're like, listen, man, have fun.

This is your last year.

Holy crap.

I'm never going to play basketball ever again on this court.

Your own teammates?

My own teammates.

And they're like, just just

pray that we win a championship because this is it for you.

wow and I was I asked him like I thought

we cared about free speech you know what I mean like this is I'm not talking about politics this is pure human rights

I mean

February came tried deadline Boston traded me to Houston Rockets and then they literally released me in like a less than few minutes wow

I mean

Our last game was against Brooklyn Nets.

And after that game, I was playing for Boston Celtics.

I remember every player was hugging me in a locker room.

I'm talking about every player.

It was like a goodbye.

And I even got emotional.

I'm like, dude, like, I can still come and like hang out with you guys.

I can still come to like your games and we can still like chill and stuff, right?

They're like, watch, just watch what is about to happen.

Like, literally the next day, Tread Deadline happened 10 minutes before the game.

So 10 minutes before the Tread Deadline, I got traded and they released me.

And I was like, well, now I know what they're talking talking about that's crazy because you were still averaging some significant numbers at the time too and i remember like after

after the third game so i started wearing these shoes yeah after the game after the third game so i wore michael jordan shoes yeah uh concord i mean it's one of the most famous ones um and our we played against charlotte and who owns charlotte michael jordan so i put i put i put on his shoes made with slave labor yeah he hated that and i remember i go and he was watching it on stay and when I walked up, like the cameras were showing my shoes and his smiles on his face.

And after that game, my agent called me and he said, listen, man, I work for you.

I don't work for the NBA.

So I'm going to be honest with you.

If you say another word, you're never going to be able to dribble that basketball on the score ever again.

Wow.

You are.

Back then, I was like 30 years old.

So you're 30 years old.

You can't play another five, six years.

That means like you're about to lose between $30, $40 million.

If you're ready for it, keep going.

If not, then you better shut up.

I said, okay.

I hang up the phone, never talk to him again.

Wow.

That is crazy.

So you were willing to die on the hill.

I mean, it's important, man.

Like, while we were comfortably playing basketball in America, making hundreds of millions of dollars and eating the most delicious food and sleeping in the most, you know, crazy apartments and buildings, whatever.

But on the other side of the world, man, you know, people are losing their loved ones, losing their lives and losing their homes.

So we got to do whatever we can to just be the voice of all those innocent people out there who don't have a voice.

Yeah, respect.

Because like you mentioned with the China genocide, the media doesn't show the same coverage compared to the Israel war, right?

And even the Ukraine war.

Yep, exactly.

So it's very interesting what they choose to show.

Yeah.

So that's why I feel like, you know, the media is not, media is going to do what's good for the media.

What's going to draw more attention or just

viewership.

So I think that's why like people who have platform needs to come out.

And

crazy thing is like this is not politics at all.

So I don't like I really I would love to challenge anyone the things that I because I was getting criticized a lot.

Oh, the athletes should stay away from politics.

I'm like, okay, sure.

But this is not politics.

Me talking about freeing political prisoners, me talking about caring about human rights, me talking about, you know, free Tibet, free Uyghur, free Turkey or free whatever, right?

So this is not politics.

This is human rights, man.

Absolutely.

So thanks for giving people in Turkey a voice, honestly, because I don't see anyone speaking out from there.

They must be so scared to even say anything, right?

Turkey is a different.

I mean, Turkey is a tough cause because like it's a NATO ally and it's the second strongest military in NATO.

When I started to like, there was a 2013, there was a corruption scandal happened in Turkey.

President Erdogan, called dictator Erdogan, and his family members were involved in it.

And that was the first time I came out and said something, but that really bothered Turkish government.

And they were sending me a lot of signals for me to just like shut up.

I mean, my dad was one of the biggest scientists in Turkey.

First, he got fired from his job.

My sister went to medical school for six years and she still cannot find a job.

My little brother, he wanted to be like his big brother and play basketball in NBA, but he was getting kicked out on every team because of the same last name.

Wow.

So they were getting affected so much.

Actually, the latter is still out there on the internet.

They put a statement out there and they said, we are disowning NS.

Holy crap.

publicly crap i listen i i remember going to a practice that day it was the toughest day of my life man like think about all my teammates they're just like looking at me and i'm like

you know

and then after that turkish government didn't believe that letter they sent police to my house in turkey and they raided the whole house and they took every electronics away phones computers laptops ipads because They wanted to see if I am still in contact with my family or not.

They couldn't find no evidence, but they still took my dad in jail for a while.

Oh my gosh.

I asked my brother.

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Because if you're someone who is not high profile, they will torture you in there.

But if you're someone who's like I have a very high profile, then they will give you chemicals to mess up with your brain.

So when my dad got out, I asked him, like, how, I asked my brother, like, how's he doing?

He's like, he doesn't act, he acts so weird.

He watches the walls all day.

And when we ask him what happened, he never talks about it.

Holy crap.

So and then things got worse, man.

They revoked my passport.

They put my name on Interpol list.

I am now allowed to, I'm now only allowed to go to 29 countries in the world.

Holy crap.

Because if I go to a country and if that country has an extradition deal with Turkey, they have to send me back.

Wow.

And back in 2022, like the cherry on the top, 2022, they put a bounty on my head.

It gets worse.

You know, it does get worse, man.

And I remember one, like, I was having a hearing in DC.

All this congressmen, senators, whatever, they were asking me questions.

And I'm like, I stopped them for a second.

I'm like, I just have one question, man.

How can

a dictatorship like Turkey can put a bounty on American citizens' head in U.S.

soil.

They looked at each other and they said,

We are sorry, but we have no answer for you.

Wow.

So, like, now I have to live with that.

And it's still active?

Oh, it is active.

It's all over the internet.

Like, whenever I talk to people like this,

they think it's like, because the conversation was so crazy.

Whenever I had this conversation with my teammates, they're like, no, you exaggerate.

I'm like,

go on the internet.

Look at it.

It's all over the internet.

Even like when I played for the Portland Share Blazers, I I was staying at

a home house and the FBI came out and said, listen, man, this is too dangerous.

You have to move to a hotel.

So I moved to a hotel.

When I was in a road game, they came to my hotel room and they set up this thing called panic button.

They said,

whenever you feel uncomfortable, push that button.

We'll be there in two, three minutes.

Wow.

So like I had to live with a panic button literally right next to my bed.

You know?

Like sometimes like people

can go out there and like like say, hey, Ennis is this and he had this kind of career and they criticize and all that stuff, right?

But like, like these things are real, man.

Yeah.

That must have been so tough on you mentally to play a game while this is going on.

To be honest with you, man, basketball was my escape.

So whenever I was on that basketball court, I literally like.

I would just, I forgot about everything.

Like I haven't seen my family 11 years.

They put my dad in jail.

Like some of the things that me and my family had to go through, I think that's like the toughest one.

When you're fighting against a dictatorship, the hardest thing that you have to go through is what your family has to go through.

So like,

like you want to be able to, like, my biggest dream was for my mom and dad to come to one of my games.

And I have not, I haven't talked to them for like, I can't remember.

So like

basketball is my escape.

Whenever I was on that court,

it was all me.

It was all about me and my teammate.

Wow.

And whenever I step off the court and all this like crazy thing things started, and now I look back, I'm like, wow, they even take that away from me.

You know, they

took one thing that away from me that was my escape.

And now what do I do?

No family,

lost tens of millions of dollars.

Lost a career.

Have no regrets.

Let me just tell you that first because they like to, like people, I'm sure like some trolls will watch this and going to try to spin my words and say, well, see, he has regrets, right?

I have zero regrets, man.

Whoever is watching this, but like, um, it's not easy.

Yeah, I hope you reunite with your family one day.

I really do.

Hope so, man, because like, whatever you're going through, I think your family is like the most important thing to you.

And then you want to, when once you lose them, you understand how

important, how important they are.

Yeah.

So, how does the presidential terms work in Turkey?

Is it

so?

There's no terms.

No, there's not.

He's been in power in the last 21 years wow so him

president ardogan well i call him dictator dictator douan and kim jong-un was the only president that have not lost an election in their life wow yeah even putin had to step down for one turn and then medvedev i believe went to like went up for one term and then he came back obviously putin went up again but president arduan and kim jong-un was the only president or whatever you call it

to have not lost a single election in their whole entire life.

Jeez.

So you got to wait until he ages out.

Yeah.

I mean, he has, I mean, you know, these kind of bad people lives a very long life.

I mean,

people are saying that like he has colon cancer, he had all that sickness, whatever.

But I'm just praying to God, man, because like

my family is the only one.

uh people knows my story because i play in nba but there are like thousands of families out there in jail right now waiting for help if you look at amnesty international human rights watch human rights foundation these reports are saying that right now there are thousands of housewives are in jail and i believe the last number was around 800 infants i'm talking about kids are in jail right now with their mother oh my gosh so um

and if you don't believe me man i'm not talking about you or whoever's watching this they can literally just go on internet and and find out all the like exact numbers that's terrible so basketball was your escape and then they took it away from you yeah

so right now i've been trying to bring my family here you know in that united states for the last like eight nine years wow we failed every time we had conversations with like

um

you know some people in the government yeah said well we have an american airbase in turkey we can sneak him out of there but that will start like a big um

like uh that will start like a it would piss off it it will piss off the turkish government and we need that you know american air base more than anything right because you you said they're the second biggest military in nato so we don't really want to be messing with them right now while there's so many other wars going on right yeah so wow dude you're so i'm i'm honestly speechless you're so great for taking on this mission man it's important man i mean it takes a lot listen i'm

it's it's so funny because like not many people know this but like the turkey is turkey's actually like i have a like i know it's gonna sound crazy because i have a bounty on my head but like turkey is not not actually like the worst one so when i started to talk about like china russia iran i had a uh meeting with some people in the state department they told me to not to give the name but so we sit down we're having this conversation right and it was the craziest um

It was the craziest meeting I've ever attended.

So like I walked in and they had this like whiteboard.

They had all these countries one by one.

They looked at me daddy in the eye and said, listen, now we will teach you which country can use what kind of tactics to take you down.

Wow.

I was like, go ahead.

So it was like, number one was China.

They said, well, you're 30, whatever years old, you're single.

From now on, you will be getting WhatsApp.

Instagram DMs and social media DMs and calls and text messages from one of the most beautiful girls of the world.

Do not answer any of them.

They're Chinese spies.

Wow.

I promise you, probably like a month after that, my whole DMs and whatever is just been blown up till now, like crazy.

And I'm like, wow, like, are they AI?

Beautiful girls.

Beautiful.

But now it got into my head so bad, I don't know who to trust or not.

A lot of guys fall for that one.

Russia, right?

They said, not in America, but some in many countries, they will follow and they will try to poison you.

Jeez.

They said Iran, they don't play with women or poison.

They will literally just come and shoot you.

They said North Korea, they will come and just like try to hack your phone somehow.

Turkey, they will try to kidnap you, which they tried in Romania.

Wow.

So they have people in Romania?

Well, so they work with these, like somebody's government out there.

I actually have a video of it too.

So they detained me in Romania.

It was two police wa watching me.

And one of them went to bathroom.

Other one came up to me and said, listen, man, you got two hours.

I know you.

I know your story.

Don't Don't tell anyone.

You got two hours.

If you don't leave this country in two hours, they're going to deport you back to Turkey.

Whoa.

So I was playing for Oklahoma City Thunder.

Yeah.

Right.

So at that moment, I'm like, like, this is literally like, this is serious.

And it's my 25th birthday.

So I pick up my phone.

I called Senator Lankford.

He was the senator.

He is still the senator for the Oklahoma.

Yeah.

So he was my good friend.

I was playing for the Thunder.

So he's like, Senator, this is what's happening.

Please help me.

I got two hours.

He said, I got it.

He said, I got you.

Literally in 45 minutes, there was a gentleman came out, give my ticket.

I don't even have a passport because they broke my passport.

Here's your ticket.

Here's your passport, which is not even working.

Get out of our country because

you're going to cause some real damage.

Wow.

So I left and

never came to, I mean, didn't even leave America until I became an American citizen.

Yeah, I'm scared of Romania.

Look what they did to the Tate Brothers out there, man.

Yeah.

Scary.

So, you know, some of the countries, I mean, that's what some of the countries do.

Like, like they

bribe or they pretty much like, you know, money talks in certain countries.

Exactly.

Yeah.

That's the easiest way to like explain it.

Yeah.

Even in America, like, let's be honest, there's corruption here, too.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

I mean, if you look at, I keep talking about China, but like, if you look at what's happening in America, right?

Wall Street, academias, big tech, even some people from Congress or local Congresses,

NBA, Hollywood,

farmlands, pretty much they, many of them is being run by the Chinese dictatorship.

Yeah.

So farmland, I think China owns the second most farmland in America, right?

Yeah, scary.

They even started to buy

areas that are on our military.

Wow.

So, yeah, that's the information not many people knows about.

Yeah, and I know they control the water in certain states, the water system.

So it's

because

I feel like China knows that they're not really strong enough to invade America from the outside, but

they can cause some real damage from the inside.

Yeah.

Well, there's different types of war these days, right?

Yeah.

There's cyber war, there's information war.

I feel like we're in an information war era right now.

Exactly.

We can program thoughts into people all through social media now.

And it's getting scary, man.

It's getting scary.

And you know what?

Like at the end, like innocent people on the streets are the one that gets hurt the most, you know?

Yeah.

Civilians.

It's a sick world.

It's sick.

Which teammates supported you the most throughout this process?

you know i think i want to give a huge shout out to stephen adams oh yeah that dude was just didn't care about anything wow even like so when boston celtics right uh released me um

all i cared about was just a one single text message.

I'm like, man, please, like one single text from any of my teammates.

I'm not talking about only Boston Celtics.

I'm talking about like throughout the whole NBA.

One single text message.

I'm like, hey, good luck with whatever comes your way next.

Keep doing what you're doing.

We love you.

We support you.

It was not even one single message after I got released.

Wow.

All of them followed me on social media.

Wow.

Because they know that if they are seen with me, or if I even

go on a podcast or an interview and say, that guy or this guy supported me.

now they're going to be in trouble.

So, and

I would never do it without their permission, you know?

and throughout this whole thing, like during my whole like, uh, being outspoken about China, so many of my teammates actually supported me.

They said, listen, like, you know, we are not going to be able to like support you in front of cameras or social media, but like, we support you because you don't talk about politics, you talk about human rights.

Keep doing what you're doing.

I said, okay.

Um, and they started like things were getting worse and worse every day.

And then they were like, enough.

But Stephen Adams, man, he was the one dude that, like,

since the day i met him he has my back no matter what man i mean um i i'm he was the only person that i'm i'm still in like like in touch with a lot even during the season i love that games and stuff and me and him used to always go against each other and we were always like debate like who's like the strongest guy in the bank and i'm obviously he is I mean, he is by far like one of the strongest dudes that I've ever go against.

He's a wall.

My God,

he's something.

But

yeah, I will just say Steven Adams.

I love to hear that.

I mean, obviously, like, I have some other

good friends.

I mean, the only person I call brother is Stephen Adams, but I have some other good friends, like Taco Fall was a very, very kind person.

Russell Westbrook, Jalen Brown.

I think that three

was special.

Westbrook's in town tomorrow.

Did you know that?

Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah, he's hosting a poker tournament at the winter tomorrow.

Maybe you could catch up with him.

He's a good dude, too, man.

Yeah, shout out to him.

He just,

I feel bad for him.

That's all I'm going to say.

He got so much hate from the media.

You know what?

Like, Ben Simmons' whole career is destroyed.

And I think largely because of the media.

You get into their head, man.

Yeah.

He still has the same talent.

Oh, yeah, of course.

I mean, it just, listen, it's just Michael Fultz, I will say, Ben Simmons, West Baruch.

I mean, I feel like all this, I mean, they're very talented, obviously, players,

but it just all in their head, I guess.

Did that ever get to you?

Because obviously the media was hating on you near the end of your career.

So, like,

I was dealing with things that are like

way beyond basketball.

I was like, I was trying to stay alive.

So I didn't really care about like these little

horse rider, whatever.

I literally didn't care about what they said about me.

I was trying to stay alive.

Like,

I can't remember.

I think it was like 2019 or 21.

I can't really remember.

But

so there was a lot of like threats, death threats.

I tried to get a life insurance.

Yeah.

And this company said, sorry, sir, you have a very high percentage chance of getting killed.

We're not giving you the full coverage.

We can only give you the half coverage.

Oh, my gosh.

So like, and I'm like, these people are telling me that I could get killed anytime.

Right.

So like these sports rider men, like they were obviously all they do is just talk, especially if you're playing for like.

like someone like the Knicks or the Lakers or like the Golden State, like a very, or the Boston, like they're going to do everything they can to take you down.

But I just didn't really care because I was trying to stay alive on the other side.

That is crazy.

So see, people don't know this side of the story.

You were fighting for your life behind the scenes.

I mean, it's bigger than basketball.

A lot of people call me crazy.

And many of my teammates actually woke up to me.

I'm like, dude, listen, we worry about you.

Wow.

Like, you're our brother.

But I'm like, listen, I'm not only doing this for my family.

You know, it like, think about this.

I think that the one thing that our world is missing is empathy.

Like we got to put ourselves in their shoes.

Like think about this.

If your mother, if your sister, if your daughter, right, was in those concentration camps getting tortured every day

and you have a basketball create in front of you and you have to choose one to be the voice of your family or just make millions of dollars, which one would you pick?

I mean, to me, it was an easy,

easy pick, but I just wish that like more people picked morals, values, and principles over money and business yeah i would say most people choose money first in a capitalist society right it's unfortunate but it is what it is exactly i think in their heads they're scared of losing their job i mean like i call out so many people man but i'm like let's let's look at mba right someone like

Someone like LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, or I'm just trying to think who else is out there that's like superstar, what Giannis, Jokic, whatever, right?

If they come out and say, listen nike

right

they talk about in america they talk about black lives matter no asian hate lgbtq community no a uh uh latino community but everybody knows about the sweatshops the slave labor right so if these players that i just told you about came out and say listen enough of the slave labor if lebron james came out and said stop If Kevin Dren, Steph Curry, or whoever, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, I'm talking about some like really big names, came out and said, you know what?

Enough.

You're preaching about things that are happening in America and you are paying players millions of dollars to stand up for what's right.

But what about what you're doing?

You know, Jalen Brown talks about a little bit.

He put like a couple of tweets out there after what Nike did with Kyrie Irving or whatever.

But I feel like the more players needs to come out and say something.

Yeah.

Well, shout out to Kyrie too, because he spoke out and he got punished for it.

He's special.

He's definitely special.

We message each other on each other on Instagram.

He told me some of the things that he's going through.

I'm told him about some of the things that I'm going through.

But he's a special player.

And he's,

there are a few players that I could just say they are more than athletes.

He's one of them, for sure.

Jalen Brown, Kyrie Irving.

These are like some of the players that are very special.

Kyrie, I don't know if you watch tennis, but Jokovich.

Djokovic.

Yeah.

The one.

I would throw me on that conversation because he was the first to speak out about vaccines i think right exactly and they were making all they made the nba guys get it right yeah oh no yes and they were encouraging us oh my gosh like and like back then obviously like we thought this was like i don't know if you don't get it you die right right so like we had this like doctors and special people that used to come and say okay you know we have to uh inspire and educate the educate the society and you guys are the leaders so talk about it and like like like as someone who was this is my second language i'm a foreigner yeah um so think about like hearing this i'm like oh my god of course like if you if you're gonna die sure i'll talk about the vaccine i'll talk about this and that so like we did it and then later on we learned that like that was all the trap wow you got all four shots no only two oh okay we only got two because like they were just like they said well if you don't get it if you have a little bit

you've never I'm never gonna play for like a week or two.

And obviously, once you don't, once you don't play for like two, three weeks, it's so hard for you to come back.

And some of us had like contract years, you know?

So it was just like the fear they put out in our head, hey, if you don't get the vaccine, you have a very high percentage of getting the, getting the COVID.

Yeah.

But then you might not play for three weeks.

And then once you, it wasn't three weeks, you're out of the rotation, you're out of shape.

And it doesn't matter how much you run, you know, you.

You can't even run.

You're going to be at your house and locked up.

Yeah.

You know, so like, you're like, okay, like, we don't want to lose any contract, whatever, let's just get it.

Damn, so you were in a fierce state of mind, and they kind of forced it.

That's terrible.

Did you feel different after getting them?

Or to be honest with you, not at all.

That's good.

Like, I'm like,

I mean, some badges are worse than others, I think.

Yeah, it's like, like, even if I, if I didn't get it, I mean, I didn't know what would be like the difference.

Yeah, that's good.

So, wow, man.

Well, um, how can people watching this support you?

I know you, uh, by the time this airs, I think the book will be.

Yes.

So, this book, man, so I put everything in this book.

Obviously, like

when I became an American citizen, I changed my name to Freedom.

And that's why the name of the book is in the name of freedom.

This does talk about not only my life story, but all the struggles that other people, like millions of people out there going through.

You know, there are so many communities out there, like Hong Kongers, Tibetans,

you know, Ukrainians,

Belarusian people, you know, Turkish people, North Korean, Venezuela, Cuba, there are so many innocent people are out there right now being suffering under dictatorships.

So I hope this book will expose so many companies, the hypocrite companies and so many dictatorships out there.

But it talks about why I am so thankful for America and why we shouldn't take our freedom for granted.

I love it.

And I hope this will inspire so many youth out there because if you want to have a better and brighter future, we have to educate and inspire the next generation.

Powerful.

So

this is the book, man.

And also, it does talk about the coexistence, man, because like right now, there are so many things that are happening because of this like not knowing the other side.

You know,

I think we need dialogue between religions and cultures.

It doesn't matter what your religion, your skin color, your background, or whoever you are, we need to leave our differences on the table and try to find what we have in common.

Agreed.

So like, I hope this will book will inspire not only millions of kids in the Middle East, but the kids in America, the next generation in America, so we don't take our freedom and the markets for granted.

Yeah, please check out the link in the video, guys.

I think it'll be on Amazon, right?

Yeah, it's on Amazon.

If you just type in in the name of freedom on Amazon, this book will come out.

And please buy your order.

Check him out, guys.

We'll link his social media handles as well if you want to support him.

I'll see you next time.

I hope you guys are enjoying the show.

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