His posts and comments have caused a backlash in China with Celtics games being pulled by Chinese video-streaming site Tencent and the government criticizing the 29-year-old's comments. Kanter told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview that despite speaking out on issues such as Black Lives Matter, the NBA has stayed silent on China -- highlighting its struggle in balancing player activism with the lucrative Chinese market.
"NBA made me do this," Kanter said. "Because every time when one of the NBA teams or the commissioner comes out to speak, they say we are encouraging players to talk about whatever they want to talk about. "We are giving freedom to our players to talk about all the injustices happening around the world, all the human rights abuses around the world. So, they gave me this right."
