Boston Celtics: Enes Kanter is in headlines, causing distraction for Celtics

Enes Kanter found his name in the headlines once again, but not for doing anything spectacular on the basketball court with the Boston Celtics. This time, Kanter has spread a global wildfire in a message directed at the Chinese Government for their wrongful actions of maintaining control of Tibet and exiling the Tibetan Buddhism culture that is practiced by so many Tibetans in the southern-west of China.

Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is once again in the headlines for speaking out against social injustices, this time going after China and Nike.

Earlier this week, Kanter slammed Nike for “remaining silent” and “not speaking out” against the use of “slave labor” and other social wrongdoings in China. Kanter continued on by saying the following in regards to Nike:

"“When it comes to China, Nike remains silent. You do not address police brutality in China. You do not speak about discrimination about the LGBTQ community. You do not say a word about the oppression of minorities in China. You are scared to speak up. Who makes your shoes in China? Do you even know? There are so many forced labor factories in China.” – Enes Kanter, via Twitter"

Kanter feels hypocrisy in the air from Nike. He perceives that Nike is a driving force in the world, but that the company is selective with what they take on. In Kanter’s video below, he gives Nike recognition in the fact they speak out on most of the injustices in the United States but does not do the same in China where Nike holds a ton of factories and warehouses where their products are produced.

It’s worth mentioning that Kanter has been battling the Turkish government for years, resulting in warrants issued for his arrest and charged with being a member of a terrorist organization for his outspoken and brutally honest comments on the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This has resulted in Turkey revoking his passport in 2017 along with false claims of Kanter and his family being members of a terrorist group.

Keeping all of this in mind, it’s hard not to look at Kanter as being a distraction for the Boston Celtics. It’s a challenging conversation to have. On one hand, Kanter is trying to do the right thing by using his platform as an NBA player to try and force change to make the world a better place. But on the other hand, it’s fair to say that all of his antics off the court are a distraction to the team; not to mention it’s taking opportunities away from Kanter on the court.

Kanter’s heart is in the right place on everything he stands for regarding his efforts to change society for the better, however, it does have a negative impact on the Boston Celtics. In doing so, China has blacked out the broadcasts of all Celtics games this season. This is happening fresh off the aftermath of the 2019 fallout between the NBA and China where multiple distributors and advertisers stopped the airing of games, costing the NBA to lose millions of dollars.

Lastly, on his recent injustice efforts, Kanter called out the owner of Nike Phil Knight, and two of their biggest brand ambassadors in Lebron James and Michael Jordan, inviting them all on a trip to China to go and see how a factory is truly run over there.

Although the season just got going, Kanter has only appeared in one of Boston’s four games and scored two points in five minutes of work. We’ve seen Celtics first-year head coach Ime Udoka deploy Grant Williams to the center position over Kanter, which does mean something as Udoka has played around with double-big lineups to start the season thus far.

It’s fair to say that Kanter is quite low on the depth chart right now. Considering the Celtics have a healthy Robert Williams, Al Horford, Grant Williams, Juancho Hernangomez, and even Jabari Parker, there just haven’t been many available minutes to go Kanter’s way. Due to the amount of depth to the position, Udoka hasn’t found minutes to give to Kanter. However, it’s not crazy to think that his off-the-court responsibilities do play a factor in that.

When fully focused and healthy, Kanter has a unique skill set down under the basket that can be an asset for any NBA team. I’m just unsure if the Boston Celtics are the best fit for him, especially since a majority of his focus seems to be elsewhere.