LeBron James Not Giving Any Energy to Enes Kanter's Recent Criticism

While LeBron James spoke with reporters about the Lakers' 130-108 loss to the Celtics, he also made it clear that he would not give any of his energy to Celtics forward Enes Kanter, who recently called out Los Angeles's superstar.

"He's definitely not someone I would give my energy to," James said. "He's trying to use my name to create an opportunity for himself."

On Thursday, Kanter wrote in a tweet, sharing that James was built on "money over morals."

"Sad and disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice," Kanter tweeted. "They really do shut up and dribble when Big Boss says so. Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?"

During pregame warmups, as James was putting up shots inside TD Garden on Friday night, Kanter walked past him on the court. Kanter wore the shoes depicting James during Friday's matchup. James told reporters that Kanter should approach him directly.

"He's always had a word or two to say in my direction, and as a man, if you've got an issue with somebody, you really come up to him," James said. "He [Kanter] saw me in the hallway tonight and he walked right past me."

Kanter has been very outspoken against Nike co-founder Phil Knight and the company's alleged forced labor links in China.

"Nike remains vocal about injustice here in America, but when it comes to China, Nike remains silent," Kanter said, in a post which featured the hashtags #HypocriteNike and #EndUyghurForcedLabor.

"You do not address police brutality in China, you do not speak about discrimination against the LGBTQ community, you do not say a word about the oppression of minorities in China, you are scared to speak up."

Kanter wore customized shoes with the words "Modern Day Slavery" and "No More Excuses" written on them in the Celtics' overtime win on Oct. 25 against the Hornets.

Then, a day later, the 29-year-old called out Knight in saying that he could come witness the injustices with his "own eyes" while also tagging the Instagram handles of James and Michael Jordan—Nike endorsers—saying "you guys are welcome to come too."

The U.S. State Department estimated that more than two million members of the Uyghur community and other ethnic minorities have been detained in internment camps in Xinjiang since 2017, according to CNN.

While Nike did not respond to Kanter's most recent comments in October, the company said in March that it did not "source products from the [Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region] and that it had "confirmed with its contract suppliers that they were not using textiles or spun yarn from the region."

The company also added to its previous statement that "Nike is committed to ethical and responsible manufacturing and we uphold international labor standards. We are concerned about reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region."

Kanter played 16 minutes in the Celtics' win on Friday, recording five points, seven rebounds and one assist.