The government of Turkey has put a $530,000 bounty on Enes Kanter Freedom, the pro-America former NBA star who has been an outspoken advocate of human rights.

The athlete, who was born in Switzerland to Turkish parents, has been an outspoken critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prompting Ankara to brand him a “terrorist” and offer the reward for anyone who helps put him behind bars.  Freedom has referred to the strongman as the “Hitler of our century.”

“Because of my platform, whenever I say something, it goes everywhere, and the Turkish government hates that,” Freedom told the New York Post. “They’re really sick of it, and they said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and doing whatever they can to shut me up.”

Former NBA player Enes Freedom is now a wanted “Terrorist” in Turkey for speaking out against the government and has a $500,000 bounty on his head 😳 pic.twitter.com/HFyD5NLxHG

— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) January 13, 2023

In a separate interview, Freedom, who legally changed his name from Enes Kanter and became a U.S. citizen in 2021, said Ankara regularly puts the lives of dissidents in danger.

“I’m not the only one,” Freedom told the Turkish Minute. “There are so many innocent journalists, academics, athletes, activists, and educators on this list. Now their lives are in danger because of the Turkish government.”

CLICK TO HEAR THE DAILY WIRE’S ALLISON WILLIAMS INTERVIEW ENES KANTER FREEDOM ON HER “BREAKAWAYS” PODCAST

In addition to criticizing his homeland, Freedom has blasted the NBA for its close dealings with China. He has clashed with NBA superstar LeBron James, who has been highly critical of the U.S., particularly during the Trump administration, but has defended Beijing’s human rights record. Freedom’s supporters believe his willingness to call out the league is the reason the 30-year-old athlete has not been on a team for over a year.

In 2021, Freedom criticized James and others for staying silent on China, where Uyghur slaves are used to manufacture shoes and apparel, while they “pretend they care about social justice.”

“I don’t know if he’s educated enough, but I’m here to educate him and I’m here to help him because it’s not about money,” Freedom said. “It’s about morals, principles, and values. It’s about what you stand for. There are way bigger things than money. If LeBron stopped making money now, his grandkids and [their] grandkids and [their] grandkids can have the best life ever.”

Freedom has played 11 seasons in the NBA, with stints playing for the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Portland Trailblazers, and, most recently, the Boston Celtics in 2021-22. The six-foot, 10-inch center has averaged 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game and earned over $100 million. He was the third overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft.

Freedom played for the Turkish national team from 2008-2015, but later became disillusioned with the country, which has become more authoritarian under Erdogan.

Freedom told the Post he fears the bounty will make him a target of anyone wishing to collect a fortune.

“That makes it so dangerous,” Freedom said. “Before the bounty, Turkish intelligence was after the people on the list, but now everyone is after them because they want the money.”

The following is the opening satirical monologue from “The Andrew Klavan Show.“

In a stunningly courageous blow against racism — or possibly just a pitiable but somehow hilarious waste of time — the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work has decided to stop using the word “field.” A notice from the school said, “We have decided to remove the term field from our curriculum” because “phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.”

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Oh, Klavan, you manic manufacturer of maniacal mayhem, sometimes your uproarious yet strangely seductive satire goes too far and becomes unbelievable by portraying leftists as subsisting at a level of amoeba-like stupidity virtually unimaginable in an even semi-sentient creature.”

But no, I swear, I am not making this up. And I didn’t make that quote up either.

The Dean of the USC’s School of Social Work, Dr. Suzanne Amoeba, made the announcement at a press conference this week, between drooling and walking repeatedly into the same wall before figuring out a way to change direction. Dr. Amoeba said, [quote] “From now on, instead of using the deeply racist word ‘field,’ we will use benign expressions like ‘that patch of grass over there,’ as in the sentence, ‘I might as well go and lay me down in that patch of grass over there because I’m never going to get a job with a meaningless degree in Social Work from USC.’” [unquote]

Another group working in the burgeoning patch of grass of language reform is Stanford University, a once respected institution of higher learning and now a pile of whitish stone with a sign on it saying “Stanford University.” The Stanford denizens want to remove such flagrantly racist language as “white paper,” because it implies that whiteness equals importance. That phrase will now be replaced by the phrase, “very important paper written by Caucasians.” They also want to eliminate sexist language like “you guys” which will be replaced by the inoffensive word “It,” as in the sentence, “It puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose again.”

Not wanting to be left behind in the great march of progress, we here at The Daily Wire are also striving to remove language that might be offensive to people who decide what is offensive to other people who are not particularly offended.

For instance, from now on, Daily Wire writers will no longer use the phrase “mush-brained parasites who have contributed jack diddly squat to human thriving,” because it might offend administrators at USC and Stanford by describing them. We will no longer use the word “wokesters” to describe our political opponents but will instead silently roll our eyes and point a thumb in their direction while mouthing the word, “morons.” When describing men who dress up as women and think they have therefore magically become women and want to force everyone to use the wrong pronoun to describe them so they don’t have to face the truth, we will STILL use the term “trans-sexual,” but we’ll try not to laugh when we say it and we’ll stop sneaking up behind them and making crazy-man faces while twirling our fingers next to our temples, unless we’re really drunk and the urge is simply irresistible. Finally, we will no longer use the outdated and sexist word “ladies” when referring to feminists and will replace the term with “slovenly screech hags who ruin everything.”

Now, since the work of reforming language is progressive, like Democrats and emphysema, and because all language has roots in ancient history where EVERYONE was racist because there was no America yet, we would ultimately like to see words eliminated from our common life altogether so that humans can simply communicate by non-racist grunts and gestures, using sounds like “uh uh uh,” to mean, “I have a degree in Social Work from USC,” or “Gah. Gah.” to mean, “I sure hope I can pay off this loan I had to take out to get through Stanford University, after which I might as well go and lay me down in that patch of grass over there and mourn the fact that I’ve wasted my life listening to mush-brained parasites who have contributed jack diddly squat to human thriving.”

Andrew Klavan Is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. A popular political satirist and Hollywood screenwriter, Klavan is also an award-winning novelist. Be sure to order his new novel today: A Strange Habit of Mind, book two in the Cameron Winter Mystery series.

The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.