The Swiss-born, Turkish-raised athlete, who became a U.S. citizen in 2021 and changed his last name to Freedom, says he had never “retired” from the NBA, which he first joined in 2011 when he was drafted for the Utah Jazz.
But in 2022, he was essentially iced out of professional basketball for being a vocal opponent of communist China, which is a major market for the NBA. He finished his NBA career with the Boston Celtics.
