Clay Travis Rips the Celebration of Colin Kaepernick and Claims Enes Kanter Freedom is ‘the Modern-Day Muhammad Ali’
Enes Kanter Freedom’s NBA career might be finished after he spent the last few months bashing China’s human rights violations.
Many have compared Kanter Freedom’s situation to Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the national anthem for social justice in 2016 and never received a legitimate contract offer from the NFL again. Despite Kaepernick’s apparent banishment from the NFL, he’s received massive contracts and sponsorship deals with Netflix, Nike, and others.
According to Outkick founder Clay Travis, the two former athletes merit a role reversal, with Kanter Freedom deserving the recent praise and glory that some have given to Kaepernick.
“When Colin Kaepernick criticizes the United States, he gets filthy rich,” Travis said. “When Enes Kanter criticizes China, points out that NBA players are signing shoe deals and wearing them in games that are made with slave labor; when he points out that the Uyghur Muslim population is having genocide perpetrated upon it; when he stands for the people of Hong Kong; when he calls for human rights around the world, he loses his job in the NBA.”
“The LeBron James’s of the world and certainly the Colin Kaepernick’s of the world like to fancy themselves as modern-day Muhammad Ali’s,” Travis continued. “Let me tell you this quite clearly: the modern-day Muhammad Ali in the NBA is Enes Kanter. The modern-day Muhammad Ali pro athlete is the person who is advocating for human rights around the world and paying a price for it.”
Kanter Freedom’s platform has grown immensely in recent months, although it hasn’t yet translated to sponsorship deals like the ones earned by Kaepernick – specifically with corporations that are known to be in business with China, such as Nike.
One important difference between Kanter Freedom and Ali is that the latter was a world-class athlete when he risked his career for what he believed was a more important global cause. Kanter Freedom was never viewed as a winning player and hasn’t been an effective talent on the court in years.
Similarly, a good portion of the people who are now praising Kanter Freedom, had no idea who he was when the now ex-NBA center was still an effective basketball player. Kaepernick, however, was nationally known, being that his protest came just a few years removed from leading the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance.
“We have woke capitalism here,” Travis argued. “Colin Kaepernick gets rewarded and Enes Kanter loses his job.”
Watch above via Outkick
