For most of my life, basketball has been at the center of everything I do.
I played 11 seasons in the NBA. I competed against some of the greatest athletes in the world. I know what it takes to reach the highest level of the gameâthe years of training, the sacrifices, the injuries.
But I didnt become the player I was in front of thousands of people under the bright lights of an NBA arena.
I became that player in the hours no one saw.
FORMER NBA FIRST ROUND PICK ENES KANTER FREEDOM DECLARES FOR 2027 WNBA DRAFT
It happened in empty gyms, one practice at a time. One more shot. One more drill. One more day of showing up and doing the work. The moments that eventually looked big to everyone else were built on thousands of small ones that hardly anyone noticed.
Ive come to believe courage works the same way.
We tend to notice courage in the big momentsâthe speech, the protest, the public stand, the moment someone refuses to back down. But courage is usually built long before anyone is watching.
It is built every time you decide that fear will not make your decisions for you.
I learned that lesson long before I understood how important it would become in my life.
ERDOGAN’S TURKEY CRACKS DOWN ON LGBT COMMUNITY IN NAME OF PRESERVING FAMILY VALUES
I grew up in Turkey. When I was a boy, some kids in my neighborhood once handed me an American flag and a lighter and told me to burn it.
I didn’t understand why I was supposed to hate a country I had never seen or people I had never met. So I went home and asked my mother what I should do.
She gave me advice I have never forgotten: “Don’t hate anyone before you meet them.”
It was a small moment.
But small moments have a way of shaping a life.
Years later, I came to the United States to play basketball. I remember hearing one of my teammates openly criticize the president of the United States. I was shocked. I thought he was crazy.
Where I came from, criticizing the person in power could carry severe consequences. Here, my teammate laughed and explained something that Americans grow up knowing: This is America. You are allowed to disagree with your government. You are allowed to criticize your leaders. You are allowed to speak.
That freedom fascinated me. But eventually, it would still wind up costing me a lot.
As my basketball career grew, so did my platform. And I began using it to speak about human rights abuses in Turkey and to criticize President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan’s government. Of course I could have stayed quiet, and that would have been much easier and safer. It was a small moment, but I knew it could have an impact. So I spoke.
And it was then that I saw the power of one person speaking up. The Turkish government revoked my passport. Arrest warrants were issued for me. My father was imprisoned. My family suffered because of my decisions. I narrowly escaped attempts to detain me abroad. Eventually, the Turkish government placed a $500,000 bounty on my head.
Speaking up cost me and those I loved enormously. But once you understand what it means to be free, sil
