07-18-24 Interview - Enes Kanter Freedom on his story

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're not going to believe who Ijust saw walking through the media row.
I look over and there's a guywho's actually taller than Jesse Kelly, which
I didn't think was possible. Youmay know him as Enis Canter, but
the world knows him as Enis Canter. Freedom, a choice he made when
he became an American citizen after beingborn in Switzerland. Were you raised in
Switzerland as welly Turkey? I wasgonna say, if you were raised in

(00:21):
Switzerland, I just went there inmy god, absolutely amazing. So you
come here, why why have youdecided to take a stand? Why did
you change your name? Your lastname of Well, everybody knows I'm a
freedom guy. So come in here, seeing all the patriots who cares about
their freedom, who cares about youknow, democrasy, who cares about America?

(00:42):
It touches my heart, you know. So it's this is my first
actually convention, and this is littlelike a big family, seeing all the
kids and elderlies and politicians and notmuch athletes. But you know, we'll
get there one day. But ittouches my heart. It is beautiful.
Well, I was talking yesterday,we were talking on the show this feels
like a sports rally, like we'reall rooting for our team, doesn't exactly,

(01:04):
And I think tonight is coming.Yeah, yeah, true speech.
Yes, that's going to be veryvery cool. When you when you came
to the United States, tell meabout growing up in Turkey. First of
all, I mean it was itwas a very different childhood, especially under
a dictator Edwins regime. You know, we had no freedom of speech,
no freedom of foolage, and nofreedom of expression, and no freedm of

(01:26):
protests and if you criticize the governments, you and your family members will be
in jail. And that was thereason my dad was in jail. But
you know, coming here in America, I mean in the first because you
keep hearing about this the craziest thingsabout America. If you live in Middle
East, Oh my god, Americais the Devil's nest. They are horrible
people, crazy people. But cominghere, actually sitting there and having conversation

(01:49):
with people for the first time,it was amazing. I was like,
Wow, this is not the Americathat I heard. And when I was
in Turkey, was it challenging foryou to you work with people who maybe
didn't have that appreciation because I thinkthat in the United States, a lot
of people don't have any frame ofreference for the stuff you just gave,
so they're ready to criticize us forour faults because we're not perfect. But

(02:13):
I guess from your perspective, wereyou just like, shut up and sit
down. Listen. We have alot of work to do in America.
Yes, correct. But you know, I remember one time I was sitting
in a locker room and my teammatesstarted to criticize America and said, oh
my god, America is trash,America is horrible and blah blah. Right,
I walked in, I was like, listen, guys, our season
is about to be over, andwhatever deseasion over, I'm going to buy
your first class ticket and let's goto someone's countryes out there. Let's go

(02:36):
to Iran, Let's go to China. Let's go to Russia and North Korea
and Turkey. You guys will seethe real dictatorship. You guys will see
forget about call it them trash.You criticize those governments, you and your
family members will be in tortured todeath. People don't know how lucky and
blessed we are in this country.What are some of the things that you
would try to say to young peoplewho maybe have had their little brains washed

(02:59):
by going to college and being toldthat America is bad. Don't take your
thing for granted. You're very blessedand one day when you travel, you're
going to understand how lucky you are. One last question, we need some
help on our bench with the nuggets. You know, are you available?
Can we should we have someone callyou? I'm just I'm curious if you're
available, if you're working out,I mean, what are we doing here

(03:20):
in working out? I'm healthy,I'm in good shape. But you know
what, it's just because of China. I don't think it's going to happen
because the relationship between China MBA isbillions of dollars and once you criticize China,
you'll be out of the league immediatelyin a heartbeat. But you know
them, they have an amazing team, amazing bench, and it's like a
cheat coat whenever you go there.They're already in shape because of the altitude.

(03:40):
I hate it going there. Ihaded playing against them, but hey,
they've been there an amazing, amazingjob. Lately in a Scarcter Freedom
Thank you so much for giving mea me Appreciate it right