Former NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom is looking to pursue a whole new career path in the not-too-distant future.
Freedom has previously hinted that he would launch a bid for political office, but he cautioned that he would only do so at the appropriate time. Freedom, who was born in Switzerland but was primarily raised in Turkey, became an American citizen in 2021 and changed his last name to Freedom. He would not be eligible to hold a political office in the US until 2028.
“Everytime I go into Congress or (the) Senate, people are like ‘What are you doing? What are you waiting for? You have an amazing shot at this.’ But, we have this crazy rule . . . after you become a citizen you have to wait seven years to run for an office. So I became a citizen in 2021, so I am allowed to run into 2028.”
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Enes Kanter Freedom attends the Algemeiner 50th Anniversary J100 Gala at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on November 29, 2022, in New York City. (Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Freedom added that he believed being a member of Congress would give him the opportunity to make an impact.
“Being an activist is good and its amazing, and it inspires so many people, but I think to make a real change you have to be in the Congress or Senate. So, I will be, yes, looking to run for Congress in 2028. It’s going to be exciting.”
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Freedom did not reveal which state he hopes to represent when he runs for office, but he did note that he wanted to live somewhere that typically has a warm climate.
“Send me somewhere warm … send me somewhere warm, sunny,” Freedom hinted. “My whole life, I’ve played for cold cities, New York, Boston, Utah, Oklahoma, Portland. I need to go somewhere warm where I’m going to wake up in a good mood.”
Enes Kanter Freedom warming up before game vs Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. Los Angeles, CA. (John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Last year, Fox News Digital asked Freedom about the issues he intended to focus on once he officially launched a bid for office.
“Good question,” Freedom responded last July. “I will say definitely education, number one, because if you want a better and brighter future, we have to educate our kids. And I just want to show people that how blessed and how good we have it in this country. Freedom’s definitely the other thing that I’m going to be working on and also bringing awareness. The third one, you know, we have a lot of censorship in this country, and we got to do whatever we can to beat that. So I’m just going to do whatever I can to just, you know, get rid of that.”
American basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom speaks during an interview with AFP at the United Nations Office in Geneva on April 5, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
This year will mark the first presidential election that Freedom is eligible to vote in.
“I just hope that whoever is going to unite this country and whoever is going to make this country even better than it is wins,” Freedom told Fox News Digital in reference to this year’s presidential candidates.
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Freedom has previously noted that he never officially retired from the NBA. He was the third overall selection in the 2011 draft. He spent the first four seasons of his career with the Utah Jazz. He hasn’t played in the league since the 2021-22 season, when he was with the Boston Celtics.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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