Enes Freedom Rips Kyrie For Hypocritically Signing Deals With Chinese Companies

Former NBA player and human rights advocate Enes Kanter Freedom joined OutKick's Dan Dakich on the Thursday edition of Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich. During the show, Dakich and Freedom discussed Kyrie Irving, who despite signing a lucrative deal with Chinese athletic company, Anta, insists that he's a warrior for social justice.

For obvious reasons, those two things don't exactly jive.

While Freedom said he once respected Irving's stance against the COVID vaccine — one that cost Irving lots of money and playing time during his stint with the Brooklyn Nets — he slammed the Dallas Mavericks star's recent deal with Anta.

"But then, you know, you are signing — a year later — a shoe contract with a company is literally known as the Chinese company, Anta," Freedom said. "And everybody knows about the slave laborers and the sweatshops."

Freedom said that Irving had a chance to make a statement and inspire kids, and while he was on track to do that, he threw it away.

"So I was like, 'Come on, man,'" Freedom said. "You know, you have an amazing tool to inspire millions of kids out there — and you have been — but now, you're going to sign in a shoe deal with the biggest dictatorship in the world.

"It broke my heart. I'll tell you that."

Kyrie's Deal Comes At A Cost

Dakich asked why Irving refused to stand on principle. He and Freedom then discussed how Irving lost a boatload of money when Nike ended its relationship with him after he tweeted a link to an antisemitic film.

"He was about to lose millions of dollars and at that point, he was like, 'You know what? I'm 30, 31, 32 years old. I'm gonna play basketball, maybe three, four more years. So let me just sign with whoever and make the most out of it.'"

Irving did just that, and while the money is probably nice, his multi-year deal with Anta comes at a greater price.

"And I mean, he signed 5 years with that Chinese company and now he is going to make millions of dollars," Freedom added. "But like there are so many American kids out there are watching him and idolizing it and so him going out there and signing a shoe deal like that."

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle