Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter Freedom launched an online attack on Jeremy Lin for the former NBA player’s apparent silence on the China-Taiwan conflict.
Shame on you @JLin7
Haven’t you had enough of that Dirty Chinese Communist Party money feeding you to stay silent?
How disgusting of you to turn your back against your country & your people.
Stand with Taiwan!
Stop bowing to money & the Dictatorship.Morals over Money brother
— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) December 5, 2021
Lin, who is Taiwanese-American, generated a cultural phenomenon back in the 2011-12 NBA season for his string of strong performances while playing for the New York Knicks. The craze surrounding his sudden fame and solid play was called “Linsanity.”
In 2019, he won an NBA title as a member of the Toronto Raptors. He became the first Asian-American to win a championship.
It seems like Freedom is expecting Lin to speak out against China.
The political tension between China and Taiwan has probably never been higher. Officially known as the Republic of China, Taiwan has been governed independently of mainland China since 1949. But China still considers the island as part of its sovereignty, and President Xi Jinping has said that “reunification” with Taiwan “must be fulfilled.”
Meanwhile, Freedom has been publicly critical of China lately. He revealed that in early November, two NBA officials were “begging” him to take off his shoes that read “Free Tibet” before a game.
He has also shown that he is unafraid of going at Los Angeles Lakers star and league icon LeBron James. Similar to what he did to Lin, Freedom took to Twitter to slam James for his relationship with Nike, which has been accused of profiting off products that are allegedly manufactured by Chinese companies using slave labor.
It remains to be seen if Lin will respond to Freedom’s latest Twitter rant.