“People need to understand this … the Chinese Communist Party does not represent the Olympic values of excellence, of respect, of friendship. The whole world knows that they’re a brutal dictatorship and they engage in censorship, they tread on freedoms, they do not respect human rights, and they hide the truth,” Freedom told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in February.

But with no team signing a contract with the 6-foot-10, 250-pound centre since February, he, and others, say that he’s paying the price for his activism — activism that includes explicitly calling out the NBA, his former team the Boston Celtics, and other players in the league for hypocrisy, citing their relationship with, and failure to condemn, China.

The 30-year-old seems more determined than ever to work in defense of human rights.

Freedom, a practicing Muslim from Turkey, will be speaking on September 24 at the March for the Martyrs in Washington D.C., an event dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians around the world. 

Source: Catholic News Agency

Photo source: Facebook/Enes Freedom