Celtics Notebook: From Enes Kanter to Enes Kanter Freedom

Enes Kanter is scheduled to officially become a United State citizen on Monday, and in honor of this long anticipated occasion by the Celtics center, he has changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom.

The name change caps a particularly active stretch for Freedom, considering his ongoing effort to call attention to the human rights abuses and aggression by the Chinese government in places like Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan via national TV interviews and game night sneaker art. Freedom has called out the NBA and sneaker giant Nike for supporting the Chinese system.

His name change is also part of a long-standing tradition, going back to when Sixers and Cavs star Lloyd Free changed his name to World B. Free, and later when the Lakers’ Ron Artest became Metta World Peace.

But it’s all good with his team, provided that Freedom pays proper attention to his professional responsibilities.

“(No problem) with him, specifically,” said Celtics coach Ime Udoka. “He’s a guy that stepped up and was ready to play when this opportunity came with Rob (Williams) being out. And that’s all we really talked about is him staying ready, putting in the work behind the scenes like he was when he wasn’t playing as much, and he’s always professional and ready to play when called upon. He’s been great lately.

“We haven’t talked a ton about off-the-court stuff,” Udoka said of his overall conversations with the team. “It’s been basketball. We congratulated (Freedom) as a group on getting his American citizenship last week. It’ll be official Monday and so that’s who Enes is, that’s part of him, the name change, and this is who he is. He’s passionate about his stances and you know the name change is, you look at Artest and guys who have done it in the past, he wants to express something and we’re all for it.”

Ankle injury sidelines Schroder

Though Dennis Schroder missed Sunday’s game in Toronto with a right ankle sprain that has given the guard trouble for roughly a week, Udoka said the injury was likely a short term issue.

“It’s a single-game thing. He rolled it pretty bad a few weeks ago, I think it against Miami, played through it, played well, especially with Jaylen (Brown) being out,” said Udoka. “He pushed through it. He did again last game and just a chance to get them some rest. But he’s done it twice now and so we wanted to give him these days, obviously with two days off after this game as well. Should be back against Philadelphia.”

The Celtics host the Sixers on Wednesday.

On leadership

Udoka is trying to draw more leadership out of his young team, but realizes that every team has a different mix of personalities.

“It has to do with personality and who you are,” he said. “We have guys that are more on the quiet side but do it in a different way. We have a veteran guy like Al (Horford) or a more vocal guy like Marcus (Smart) who can speak up more than Jaylen and Jayson (Tatum) at times. But I don’t think it matters where it comes from. If something is being done everyone should speak on it. That’s part of their growth. Those guys growing into being leaders and being more vocal. That will take us to another level as a team. That onus within each other.

“(We’ve) stressed that if they do something wrong, it doesn’t matter what their status is, guys should speak out and hold them accountable as well, because they’ll do the same thing,” he said. “In general we encourage that from our team, not to take it personal, but as constructive criticism and push on from there. Not just coming from the coaching staff. I believe it should also come from the players.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3lhWWQb