314: Mr. Freedom Made a Promise to His Mother with Enes Kanter Freedom

The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 39.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2023

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Despite the bounty on his head, the former basketball star and human rights activist explains why he gave up his NBA career and tens of millions of dollars to keep a promise he made to his mom and do God’s work. Mr. Freedom knows better than most that freedom isn’t free.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, friends. It's episode number 314 of the way I heard it and I'm fired up!
0:08.0	I am. I'm fired up, man. I was just such a great conversation. This one's called Mr. Freedom
0:18.0	made a promise to his mother because that's really where the story starts.
0:24.0	Ennis Cantor Freedom is an NBA star. He played for the Celtics most recently, played for the
0:31.2	Utah Jazz before that. I met him back in November at the Patriot Awards when he was awarded.
0:38.2	I think it was most valuable Patriot. I'll confirm that momentarily. But you know, the guy we just
0:46.0	talk a lot about walking the walk and when it comes to this country and when it comes to people
0:51.5	who are really trying to make a difference, there are a lot of different ways to measure him. But
0:55.6	one way is what did you give up? What were you willing to sacrifice? And if that's the question
1:03.6	Chuck, I don't know. There are not many people who are alive anyway that I'd put in front of this guy.
1:12.1	Yeah. To say everything is a little too broad because he's still alive and there is a bounty on
1:18.1	his head. But keep in mind, he's probably given up $40, $50 million of money.
1:24.0	Poetly. Salary for the, you know, and salary never even mine endorsements.
1:28.0	Endorsement deals, stuff like this. But here's the thing that is, you know, what else he's given up?
1:32.2	He's given up his home country of Turkey. When I say he's given up, it's taken away from him, his
1:37.6	family. He's been denied to see them. He can't go back to Turkey. He can't leave the United States.
1:43.8	This is the guy, if you're not an NBA fan and I'm not, I don't watch a lot of basketball,
1:49.2	nothing against the players or any of the individuals. I'm just weary of China. I'm just exhausted
1:54.9	by our relationship with China and I'm somewhat sickened by the way that so many people just lick
2:02.0	their boots, you know, just to say it. It's just tiresome. And this guy brought it to a head for me
2:08.5	a few years ago. He wore some sneakers onto the basketball court, calling attention to Taiwan.
2:16.7	Was it Taiwan or Hong Kong? It was Taiwan. It was Tibet. It was Tibet first.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.