May 2, 2024
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom came to the USA's defense on Monday after Washington Mystics player Natasha Cloud called America "trash" just days before July 4th.

Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom came to the USA’s defense on Monday after Washington Mystics player Natasha Cloud called America “trash” just days before July 4th.

“Our country is trash in so many ways,” the WNBA guard said Friday on her Twitter page. “And instead of using our resources to make it better we continue to oppress Marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of times.”

Kanter Freedom responded to Cloud’s commentary on July 3, inviting her to visit oppressive regimes around the world such as Iran and North Korea, and offering Cloud a reminder of fellow WNBA player, Brittney Griner who spent 10 months in a Russian prison last year.

“Just ask your colleague Brittney Griner how ‘trash’ America is,” Kanter Freedom tweeted, and continued:

Calling America trash huh? Let me know when your season is over, I’ll buy your ticket and we can go together to counties like China, Russia, IRAN, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, & Turkey. Forget about calling them trash, I would like to see if you can even criticize those regimes!! You and your family members would be thrown in jail, tortured to death, and raped.

In this combined photo, WNBA player Brittney Griner (R) is escorted to a courtroom for a hearing in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, on July 7, 2022. Viktor Bout (inset) is led by armed Thai police commandoes as he arrives at the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong, Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The Swiss-born, Turkish-raised Kanter legally added the “Freedom” to his name in 2021 when he became an official citizen of the United States.

“People have NO idea how lucky and blessed they are to be in a country like America,” Kanter Freedom continued. “I’m not saying America is perfect, but trust me, you don’t wanna see the other side.”

Kanter Freedom has spoken out against regimes such as China, Cuba, and Venezuela, and criticized the Biden administration for its decision to trade Griner for “Merchant of Death” Viktor Bout, who was being held on a 25-year sentence in the U.S. for selling weapons to a Columbian terror group.

“I want [Griner] to return back home. … [but] we cannot trade that horrible human being for her. It’s just not a fair trade,” he said in August.

During her Friday rant, Cloud expressed her fear of “white supremacists” as an American, saying:

I’m blessed to travel the world for my career. I’ve been in plenty of countries that I would have my human rights, healthcare, free/assisted schooling, don’t have to fear mass shootings or white supremacists, don’t have to be concerned about the highest maternal mortality rates.

Interestingly, Cloud announced in a follow-up rant Monday that she was raised in a middle-class Philadelphia family by white parents and was the youngest of 5 white siblings. According to Cloud:

I’m the baby of 5 in which it may come to a surprise to you but ALL OF my siblings are white & BOTH my parents are white. My entire family is white. The reason why I fight so hard for equity in this country is because I was privileged enough to grow up In a middle class white family.

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