Enes Kanter Freedom has found his way back into the news cycle, and not surprisingly, it has nothing to do with hitting a mid-range jumper.
Instead, the former NBA big man submitted a formal letter declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft. In a video posted to X, Kanter, wearing a WNBA hoodie, butted into the neverending culture war surrounding transgender athletes by challenging the league’s eligibility rules; Freedom’s announcement led to another former NBA first-round pick, Royce White, to also declare for the draft.
It’s the latest in a long string of performative stunts that have fueled his reputation as a right-wing troll.
Love him or hate him, Freedom, who legally changed his last name upon becoming an American citizen in 2021, knows how to find his way into the news feed—especially when he’s obviously not operating in good faith.
However, all of the non-basketball-related headlines make it easy to forget why anybody cared about Enes Kanter Freedom in the first place. He was once a top NBA prospect with major upside and a tantalizing offensive skillset.
Which brings us to the multi-million-dollar question: Put the politics aside for a minute: Was Enes Kanter Freedom Actually a Good NBA Player?
Enes Kanter Freedom’s College ‘Career’ at Kentucky
To understand Kanter’s basketball career as a whole, you have to rewind to his head-scratching tenure (sort of) at the University of Kentucky. Back in 2010, when John Calipari landed Kanter, Big Blue Nation genuinely thought they were getting the next great international superstar. But things didn’t quite play out that way.
Kanter never played a single official minute for the Wildcats.
The NCAA, instead, ruled Kanter permanently ineligible. The infraction? He had reportedly received just over $33,000 above his "actual and necessary expenses" while playing for Fenerbahçe, a professional club in Turkey, before moving to the United States. Calipari argued the funds were for educational and living expenses, but the NCAA had no interest, and instead dropped the hammer.
Instead of dominating the SEC, Kanter spent the 2010-11 season on the sidelines as a bystander. The "Free Enes" movement swept through Lexington, and as you can imagine, it didn’t have much of an impact.
Kanter Freedom’s NBA Draft Win
However, this is where the story gets even more interesting. Most players who don’t see the floor in college would see their draft stock plummet. Front offices are naturally risk-averse. So how did the Utah Jazz justify taking a mystery big man with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft?
Simple. He had a tape that NBA general managers apparently fell in love with.
Before the NCAA’s decision to effectively bench Kanter for the college season, he suited up for the World Select Team at the 2010 Nike Hoop Summit. Facing a loaded American squad featuring future NBA stars Kyrie Irving, Harrison Barnes, and Tobias Harris, the then-17-year-old Kanter put on a show. Coming off the bench, he dropped 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, shattering a scoring record previously held by Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki.
That single game was a masterpiece of footwork, soft touch, and dominance and convinced the Jazz that Kanter was a generational offensive talent. Utah overlooked the year of inactivity; instead, buying stock in his massive 6-foot-11, 260 pound frame. .
So, did the gamble pay off? Yes and no. Sort of. The answer to whether Kanter was “good" depends entirely on which side of the floor you're watching.
Evaluating Kanter Freedom’s NBA Play
Offensively, Kanter was a force of nature (at least when looking at the box score). He had the potential to be a walking double-double who could score in several different fashions offensively. This included a surprisingly smooth mid-range jumper that kept defenses honest.
More impressively, he quickly proved capable of being a great offensive rebounder, averaging five offensive boards per game during his 2014-15 stretch with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Throughout a career that spanned stops in Utah, Oklahoma City, New York, Portland, and Boston, Kanter was a strong rebounder on the offensive end of the floor.
On paper and based on pure skill set, Kanter had the makings of a consistent 15-point and 10-rebound per night type of player. He contributed to the Portland Trail Blazers run to the 2019 Western Conference Finals while playing through a separated shoulder. Over 11 seasons, his elite production in the paint earned him roughly $101 million in career salary.
But basketball has two sides of the court for a reason, and Kanter's defense was, to put it kindly, a disaster.
In an era when the NBA was rapidly shifting toward pace, space, and switchable defenders, Kanter lacked the ability to do much defensively. He was historically abysmal at defending the pick-and-roll. He lacked the lateral quickness to stay in front of guards and the vertical leap to be a true rim protector, two pivotal aspects of defensive success. The defining moment that summarized his futility occurred during the 2017 playoffs when then-Thunder coach Billy Donovan appeared to say in frustration on the sideline to Mo Cheeks that he "can't play Kanter."
Even recently, stories of Kanter’s lack of growth, specifically on defense, have been highlighted. Current ESPN Sports Radio host Spence Checketts revealed a story asking a Jazz coach why it seemed Kanter wasn’t “getting any better” early in his career. The coach’s apparent response was pretty eye-opening.
Enes Kanter Freedom’s Off-Court Headlines
Evaluating Kanter Freedom from a basketball perspective is one thing, but you’d be remiss not to acknowledge his life away from the floor. Long before he was donning WNBA gear to make a bad-faith point about gender politics, he was risking his life to call out real-world tyranny.
Kanter became an uncompromising critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, labeling him the "Hitler of our century" due to alleged human rights abuses, jailing of journalists, and purging his domestic political opponents. The retaliation from the Turkish government came down hard on Kanter Freedom, as Turkiye revoked his passport in 2017, effectively leaving him stateless until he gained U.S. citizenship.
Kanter Freedom’s father was arrested and faced a multi-year prison sentence in 2018 after being briefly detained in 2017, but after legal pressure and a bright spotlight, was released in 2020. They issued multiple arrest warrants, aggressively seeking his extradition through Interpol on dubious terrorism and defamation charges. For years, Kanter Freedom couldn't travel for regular-season games in Canada or London out of fear of extradition or worse.
How Did Kanter’s NBA Career End?
Kanter last played in the NBA during the 2021-22 season when the Rockets immediately waived him following a February 2022 trade with the Celtics. Kanter said he received no free agent offers that summer and hinted it was connected to his outspokenness surrounding the NBA’s relationship with China. He retired with career averages of 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.
He has also publicly pointed to an ongoing feud with LeBron James as part of the reason why he’s no longer in the NBA. Kanter infamously said he doesn’t care what James calls himself, whether it’s the “King, Queen or Princess,” in a postgame interview. However, things escalated when Kanter publicly criticized James for not speaking out about human rights violations in China, offering to “educate” him on the topic, as ESPN reported.
"Sure, I'd love to sit down and talk to him," Freedom said in 2021.. "I'm sure it's going to be a very uncomfortable conversation for him. I don't know if he's gonna want that. I'll make that really comfortable for him.
"I don't know if he's educated enough, but I'm here to educate him and I'm here to help him, because it's not about money. It's about morals, principles and values. It's about what you stand for. There are way bigger things than money. If LeBron stopped making money now, his grandkids and grandkids and grandkids can have the best life ever.
"I feel like it's definitely time for athletes to stand up for the things they believe in ... not just in America ... but all over the world."
In addition to calling China’’s president Xi Jinping a “brutal dictator,” Kanter also wore sneakers emblazoned with the messages “Free China” and “Free Uyghur.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver denied that Kanter was blackballed. “We spoke directly about his activities this season,” Silver said in 2022. “And I made it absolutely clear to him that it was completely within his right to speak out on issues that he was passionate about.”
Ultimately, Enes Kanter Freedom’s basketball legacy is a mess of contradictions.
Was he a good NBA player? He was an excellent offensive talent, with defensive shortcomings that were impossible to ignore.He was a flawed, yet skilled, uniquely frustrating, NBA talent.
Just don't ask him to defend a high screen.
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