Enes Kanter had enjoyed the unconditional support of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for years. The Turkish-American player – 2.08 meters tall, weighing 113 kg and with a big candid smile – could speak out at will against his country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan – the "Hitler of our century," as he calls him.

The best player of his generation in Turkey, the center made his league debut in 2011 at the age of 19. He used his fame to promote his political positions concerning Turkey from the United States. Like other NBA stars who were encouraged by the institution to commit themselves to civil rights or the defense of minorities. "Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, texted me twice and said : 'We have your back. Keep doing what you're doing, because you are standing up for freedom in Turkey,'" Enes Kanter told Le Monde. He is a supporter of the Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen, Erdogan's nemesis.

Everything changed on October 20, 2021. Kanter had joined the legendary Boston Celtics for his 11^th year in the NBA. The player was in New York with his team, preparing for the next day's season opener against the Knicks, and brooding in his hotel room.

Game coverage shut down

The pivot remembered the criticism leveled at him by a couple he had met at a basketball camp a few weeks earlier: "How can you call yourself a human rights activist when your Muslim brothers and sisters are tortured and raped every day in concentration camps in China?" He had never heard of the Uyghurs, the persecuted Muslim minority in western China, hundreds of thousands of whom are confined in camps.

Kanter found out more about them. More generally, he also educated himself on the authoritarian practices of the Chinese regime. As basketball fans the world over anticipated the upcoming season of the NBA, the player posted a nearly three-minute video on social media attacking China and its "brutal dictator" of a president, Xi Jinping. "Free Tibet," he proclaimed, wearing a T-shirt featuring the Dalai Lama, in support of the territory occupied by China since 1950. When he took to the floor at Madison Square Garden the next day, his sneakers also bore the slogan "Free Tibet." Cameras zoomed in on his shoes, designed by the artist and Chinese dissident Badiucao, who is in exile in Australia.

The stunt did not go unnoticed. Just a few minutes later, coverage of the match was shut down in China by streaming giant Tencent. Kanter received a message from his manager at half-time: "Every Celtics game is banned in China." The NBA shuddered. China is its second-largest market after the United States, and it sells TV broadcast rights, branded merchandise and partnerships there. The economic stakes involved have thus far been vital for the NBA, which – according to various sources– is estimated to have made a record $500 million in sales there in 2019. Almost 400 million basketball fans are known to live in the country – more than the entire US population.

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