Since he entered the NBA as a third overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Enes Freedom never backed away from his beliefs and stood as an activist on multiple political aspects.
During his playing days, Freedom spoke out on human rights, free speech, and democracy, focusing heavily on political issues in his home country of Turkey, which ultimately cost him his citizenship and later his NBA career.
Famously, when Freedom called out the Chinese government over human rights abuses in early 2022 and publicly slammed Nike and LeBron James for their business ties to the country, he quickly found himself out of the league when the Boston Celtics traded him to the Houston Rockets, who waived him shortly after.
Since then, Enes has shifted his focus entirely to activism, recently making headlines for political protests around transgender policies in sports, including the WNBA, while also pulling the curtain on NBA players being homophobic.
In Freedom's recent podcast appearance with YouTuber Clay Travis, one of the main topics of the sit-down was whether NBA players believe men who identify as women should play in the WNBA, and Enes didn't hesitate to respond.
"Over 70, 80 percent of NBA locker rooms are homophobic," said Freedom. "They hate the LGBTQ community. They hate the trans community. But they will never come out and say it."
"So, we actually had this conversation many times. Forget about men playing in women's sports. We had these conversations in our locker room so many times. This is not my view. This is my teammates I'm talking about. I played in five different locker rooms, right? I had hundreds of teammates. Every time this conversation was coming up, in a way, I could easily say, and I'm being nice, that over 70, 80 percent of NBA locker rooms are homophobic."
When you play for more than a decade in the league, as Freedom did, basketball is only a small fraction of what's really going on in professional sports.
And when the topic revolves around political views and opinions, such as the LGBTQ community, most players have the same take on it, which Enes proved in one statement when he was asked if NBA players would want to have a gay teammate.
"There's no way," said Freedom. "They would feel so uncomfortable. When you ask them, 'Why don't you go out there and talk about it?' They say, 'I have endorsement deals. I have contracts and if I ever talk about it I will be canceled.'"
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Unsurprisingly, if players began speaking out on issues like Freedom, they would face the same fate: losing their careers and lucrative contracts, which they aren't willing to risk. Some of his former teammates, however, who were religious, have tried to prove a point by speaking out as much as they could without risking everything.
"There were a couple of players that were very outspoken about it," said Freedom. "I don't want to mention their name, but those players used to read the Bible at halftime. We had a 15-minute halftime, seven minutes the coach was coming and talking, and then we had like eight minutes left, they were going and drinking water. For the last five minutes, instead of going out, they were reading the Bible. They were outspoken a little bit more."
Still, no matter their religion or nationality, the consequences are greater than anybody could imagine, as seen on Freedom, which is why most players will keep quiet regardless of what they really think, with this case revolving around sexuality and gender.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
