 Wel, ydych chi'n ddweud am gweithio gyda'r eich ffordd yma, galled yn ffodol yma, y cyfnod ymlaen i Enys Canter, o'r seltu bost, a nesaf yn Sweidiaeth, cyntaf i'r bagadau dros bost, i'r cyfnod yn gweithio'r bach. Rwy'n fawr yn ddod fod yn ddysgol. Roedd y gallai gweithio i Edymor, rwy'n gyfer y Gymraeg yma, ac rydyn ni'n ddod o'r ffordd yma'r eich ffordd. Felly, rydw i'n ddweud i'r ffordd ac y bwrdd yma. Rydw i'n ffawr, ac rydw i'n ddweud i'r ffordd cyflawni Cymru yn ymddi'r ffordd. Mae'r ddeun yn ymddi'r ffordd. Mae'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ffordd. Mae'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ffordd ac yn siaradau cyflawni cyflawni. Rydw i'n ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ffordd ac yn ymddiriaeth efo'r syniad ymddiriaeth i'r ffordd. Mae'r Ffawr i'r Ffodd i'r Oeddon yn gyfod i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ffordd. It is auspicious that in Iscanda is here, tonight, as we recognise the achievements of the Tuff's, Women's and Men's basketball teams. Both are seated No. 1 in this weekend's Nez produção tournament, both of which Tuff's will be hosted at the Cossans Gymnasium. The women are coming of their first undefeated season in the programme's history. So, we want to wish them both much success and a place in the NCAA tournament. At this point, I would like to invite Sophia Rose, a sophomore guard on this year's team, to present Ines with a topse jumbo shirt. Thank you so much. Do you want to take a picture? Do you want to take a picture? I guess. Okay. Thank you. So, go jumbo's. Finally, I would like to invite Conor Doyle, a member of the class of 2021, and an ideal student to introduce Ines and Neil. Thank you, Professor Williams. Hi, everyone. My name is Conor Doyle, and I'm a junior studying international relations in Arabic. I have the distinct pleasure of introducing speakers for tonight's event. Before I do so, I'd first like to thank the Institute for Global Leadership for fostering experiential learning through opportunities across Tufts campus. Tonight, we have the pleasure of hearing from Ines Canter, an MBA centre for the Boston Celtics. Drafted as a third pick in the 2011 MBA draft, he played for the Utah Jazz between 2011 and 2015. Prior to joining the Celtics, Mr Canter played for the Portland Trail Blazers, where they made it to the conference finals last year. He also played for the Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks. Ines was born in Switzerland. Ines was born in Switzerland to Turkish parents and spent the formative years of his childhood in Turkey. Mr Canter came over to the United States at age 17 to further his basketball career. This move paid off, and he spent a year at the University of Kentucky before declaring for the MBA draft. Over the course of his career, Mr Canter has been an activist, working to help people and speaking out against injustice. Last summer, he hosted 50 camps in 30 states for kids that went beyond teaching basketball to include nutrition, anti-bullying, and lessons of respect in one another. He established a scholarship fund for first-generation college students and children of first responders killed in the line of duty and worked with food rescue operations in Oklahoma City to provide food for at-risk youth during the holiday season. Mr Canter is also planning on opening a charter school in the Oklahoma City metro area that focuses on serving low-income minority students and those from immigrant families who speak limited English. It is my pleasure welcoming him here this evening. Moderating tonight's discussion is alumnus Neil Swaddy. Neil Swaddy is a best-selling author and award-winning Boston Globe magazine staff writer. His most recent book, Trapped Under the Sea, was named one of the best books of the year by Amazon and Booklist. He's also the author of The Assist, named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and co-author of Last Lion, The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. His writing has been featured in best American science writing, the best American crime writing, and the best American political writing. He now teaches journalism at Brandeis University. At the outgrowth of his first book, he founded the All-Ray Scholars Programme, a mentoring and scholarship non-profit that gives low-income Boston students a second chance at college. Please give them both a warm welcome. Thanks very much, Connor, and thank you. Well, I wasn't planning to start with this, but because we have the undefeated... I haven't got an invite, though. Yes, I didn't get an invite yet. Yes, where's the invite, Brandon? I'm so in for my invite. You wrote recently in Time Magazine a piece about pay equity for the WNBA. Can you explain just for the audience what motivated you to do that? First of all, that issue has been bothered before since I started playing basketball. I feel like they don't get the same attention that they deserve. They don't get the same... That was bothering me for eight, nine years, and I wanted to write it. Just because I had the platform, I told my friend in Time Magazine, I want to write something about equal pay. Once I write the article up, of course I had so many haters out there. I was just saying, hey, no, seriously, it was crazy. It was like, oh yeah, you cannot compare this to that. You cannot compare Jordan with this. I give him a really quick example. I was like, okay, Michael Jordan, a flu game. It's obviously one of the most legendary moments that we've always heard, but not many people know that Skylording is playing and pregnant in the whole season, 2018 season. Not many people talk about that stuff. For me, I was like, you know what, I have to talk about that stuff. For me, I was like, you know what, just because I have the platform, I need to bring this to our audience. We were just in LA a few days ago in Kobe's memorial, and then someone like the legends came there and speak down at the tares, it just amazed me. I was like, you know what, what I did was right. I feel like they don't get the attention that they deserve. So I feel like just more places to step up and talk about these issues. At least you get new haters from the haters you normally have. It's crazy. I'm not from the Celtics, not from the Celtics, but even some of the NBA players will tell them, hey, this is wild, what you're talking about is crazy. Of course they are not going to make the same money, whatever. But I'm like, I give them a very quick example. I'm like, look at what happened to US women's soccer team. They won the World Champion, and they don't get the same credit or the attention that men's soccer team does. So I was like, they were pretty shocked that the exams had come up, but in the end, I'm trying to speak the truth. So you came here at 17. What were your first impressions of this country? You came to play basketball and there were complications with doing that, but what were your just impressions of the country itself? I was kind of lost because I did not know English. The food was different, the culture was different, religion was different, everything was different. So the first couple of months I had a really hard time adjusting all that stuff. But then I was like, this is going to be my home from now. And then I was like, I was trying to really force myself to just really be American, I'll say. I was going to McDonald's, I was watching, seriously. I was watching, I asked one of my friend, he was like, hey, where can I learn the street language? He said there's a show called Jersey Shore. Seriously. So I was like, start watching that show and you got to pick it up like this. I'm like, okay. So I went to my, I was in college. I went to my dorm and started watching Jersey Shore for the first time. I was like, this is so, I don't want to say, this is so crazy. I don't want to say, this is so crazy. But now it's like, next thing I know I wasn't attending bad, I'm joking. But I'm actually really cool friends with Michael's situation right now. I know his song is very weird. But like we talk on Twitter and we text each other and stuff. But seriously, Michael's situation is very weird dude. You came to play prep school and then you couldn't because of a shoe contract, right? Well, one of the biggest reasons that I came to America because while in Turkey you cannot really go to school and play basketball at the same time. You have to pick one, either education or sport. So I wanted to do both. I wanted to go to college, get my education and play basketball at the same time. So that was one of the biggest reasons that I came to America just because I was professional. I played professional in Turkey, I had a shoe deal and stuff. So that's why they said, you're not truly a lot to play. So no, I couldn't play high school or I couldn't play college. It must have been crazy. So you're watching just the Jersey Shore? It was tough because NCAA rules are like the craziest rules. Just because now I'm done with college and everything I can say. It's like a psychotic data shift. It's crazy. I hate the NCAA rules because I'm talking about the sports. For me, I turned down lots and lots of money to just come here and go to school and play basketball at the same time. But just because I had a shoe deal, they said you cannot play college basketball ever. They told me I'm not even a lot of practice with the team anymore. So the coach Cal, coach Calipari and Kentucky, made my assistant coach. I was the youngest stink coach in history. I was trying to practice with my teammates. So I couldn't play high school, I couldn't play college. Then I'm like, okay, I'm going to go to draft. I got drafted and finally I'm going to play basketball in America. Then lockout happened in 2011. So no high school, no college, no NBA. I'm like, this is getting wild. I'm not going to play basketball. I should go back to Turkey. I was thinking about that. The lockout was over December, then I was fine. So what do you make of reforming the NCAA? You see it now, you see all the crazy decisions and control that's kind of embedded in it, and the people who get caught, the students and their families who get caught up in it. We see something going on right now with the likenesses, the court cases that have started out in LA and other things happening. Are you optimistic that power structure can be changed? I hope so, because NCAA is making billions and billions, but the rules that they put is terrible. I hope it will change one day, because lots of international players are scared to come to America and play college basketball because of all these rules. Moving ahead to how you balance basketball and activism. You told me before that you have friends when you started to get a little more public about things. Friends in the NBA who said, don't do this, man. Just shut up, play, cash your checks. Where does that come from? What does activism look like in the locker room when we're not around? What are people saying? For those who don't know, I'll say this, I feel really blessed in America, because we have freedom, we have democracy here, we have no rights, and people respect each other, but sadly we don't have any of those in my country in Turkey. That's why just because I have the platform, I'm trying to talk about some of the issues going on in my country. Of course it affected me and my family. When I started talking about these conversations, it was like five, six, six years ago. Of course it affected me and my family. I remember it was, I think it was 2015, that was the last time I was back in Turkey, and then after that I left Turkey, and then things just got more heated, and then Turkish government revoked my passport. My dad was a genetic professor, and he got a fine from his job, just because I talked about these issues. Just talk, nothing else. My sister went to medical school for six years, now she cannot find a job because of the last name. My little brother, I have two brothers, one of my little brother was playing basketball in Turkey, and he literally got kicked out of every basketball team, just because I talked about these issues. My other family members were kept getting fired, and my family had to put a statement out there and said, we are disowned in Ennis, and they made it publicly. After that, I remember going to practice, it was probably the most awkward, most weirdest day, most emotional day in my career, basketball career. Actually the Turkish government really didn't believe in that, and they sent police to my house in Turkey, and they raided the whole house, and they took every electronics away, phones away, computers away, laptops away. They wanted to see if I am selling content with my family or not, and if they were to see any text message, any missed calls, any email, they would be all in trouble. So it's even hard to communicate with my family. Of course just because it's so public, my team is asking me the question whichever team I go to, are you crazy? Why do you keep talking about these issues? I mean, because they just tell me, you're an NBA player, just excuse my language, just shut your mouth, make your money, and just live a happy life, and your family is getting affected, but I was telling them, hey look, my family is the only one, there are a thousand families out there, their situation is way worse than mine. You guys know my story because I play in NBA, right? So that's what, when I sit down and talk to them like that one-on-one, and they will have a better understanding of what's going on, and they are asking me, what can we do? So that, we talked about this once before, but that 2015, you go home, you know something might be coming, and you said your mother was doing what every Middle Eastern mother does, cooking for you, you start breakfast, and then you start cleaning up, and you start lunch, and you start dinner. And you sit her down, and your father down, and tell them what? Yes, I actually, yeah, me and him talk about this stuff before, but like I remember I had a conversation with my dad, with my mom, and with my siblings, I was like look, I am, there's some things are going to happen in our country, and I'm going to be, I will be talking about these issues, and just because of I will be talking about these issues, you guys might get affected, and your job might get affected, and your loved ones might get affected, and then they said, hey, if you're in the right path, we got your back, right? And then I remember, it was the last day I was going to come back to America, I get in a cab, and in Turkey, in these apartments, we have balconies, and my mom and my sister was standing on a balcony, and I turned around, I was in the cab, I turned around, my mom and my sister was waving, and I'm like, this is the last time I'm seeing my mom, and my mom waved, I waved, and I left, and that was the last time I saw my mom, it was back in 2015. And why did you know, how did you know? Because I know where this was going, I knew the things were going to get more heat up, and I know that the Turkish government they were not going to stop using your human rights violations, they were not going to stop jailing all these innocent people, especially political prisoners and journalists. For you guys who don't know that there are, right now, Turkey is the number one country in the world that put most journalists in jail, more than things like China or something. And there are 17 innocent, 1,000 women in jail right now, and if you look at all the reports MSD International, Human Rights, Human Rights Foundation, they are being tortured, they've been getting raped, and there are almost 1,000 babies on the jail with their mothers growing up in jails. So I'm like, so this was coming. And I warned them, and I told them, it was like, if you guys got my bag, here. And then when you had to see that statement where they disowned you, and you knew the politics behind it, but what was the most tough? I was thinking, just because I cannot call them and talk to them on the phone, I was thinking like, hey, they might do this, so Turkish government will leave them alone. But then, I don't know, I still want to think that way. I don't want to think that way. And then I remember, I told my mom, she got my bag, but it's okay. Are you able to talk with your siblings? The one in Spain, he plays basketball at the Badalona. So with him, yes. With the other ones, no. Because, like I said again, they track down everything, the phones, conversations, e-mails and everything. So I always talk to my brother and he sent me pictures of my dad and mom. I'm like, wow, my mom's getting old, my dad gained weight. I always see it from the pictures. That was 2015 when you sat them down. That was two years after your public initiation into this activist world, which started with a tweet. What motivated you to do that tweet? Because the Turkish government was going around and shutting down schools. I was like, I don't care what you're up to, I cannot fight against education. So once there were starting to a new schools down, the schools and everything, dormitories, universities, I was like, I gotta say something about that. Just because I had this platform, when I say something, it became a conversation, especially in Turkey. You had gone since the second grade to his mid schools. For the people who don't know that, what are those schools like? Well, first of all, his met me in service. The schools that I was going into, since the second grade, what really amazed me about these schools, it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter what your color is, your religion, your culture is. What I learned in the schools is the most important thing in life, is live your differences on a table and try to find what we have in common. So once I came to America, I was like, wow, I'm lucky that I went to those schools. After that, so these people, this organization, his met organization, have schools over 170 countries in the world. These schools are not just for Muslims, it's not a religious school, you just can go there and learn about math and science. At least in this country, the charter schools are math and science focused. So a lot of the controversy around your activism within Turkey has to do with Fethulogelon. Can you remind us of how you first connected with him? I know you went to the schools that were part of his network, but how you first met him personally? I met him in America, obviously. He lives in America. So for those who don't know, he's talking about a person that... He was one of the persons that, just when Turkish government was in Atlanta, his organization was the only one to stand up against all the abuses that they were doing. I met him in America. President Erdogan, when he was prime minister, was close with Mr Golan, and then they had some kind of... People were always saying they were close, but they were not really close. They only got together two times, one in a soccer game, a dinner or something. But there was some sense of cooperation. That's what the media wanted to, just make it look like they were close, but they were never close. I actually asked them that they were never close. So because early on in Erdogan's time, he was pushing some of the things that Mr Golan had been advocating for a while, sort of moving the country that way, and then things have changed from there. Things have changed a lot, yep. But as you know, from the Turkish council general and others, they accuse you of being a spokesman for him and not for the people of Turkey. So what is your message to them? My message to them, I was like, listen, if talking about, if asking for freedom, if asking for democracy, if asking the freedoms of all those political prisoners, if asking the freedoms of all those, you know, women are in jail, innocent women are in jail, I am a bad person, I am a bad person. That's my message to them. And they blame him for the coup in 2016. You said managing the coup from his compound in Pennsylvania, you said you were with him that night, and what was he doing? Well he was just sitting on his chair and praying for his country. That's literally all he did, because obviously I was with him and after the coup attempt, when President Erdogan came out I was like, I was with him that night. That's why I wanted to use that platform to talk about these issues. So we're at a university campus where a lot of people here are dealing with international relations. What is your assessment of what is actually going on in Turkey? What are the mechanics from someone who, from your perspective, of what happened there? Well I feel like President Erdogan just wanted to be the one man show that he only wants yes man's around. And if you're against him, in any ways, in Turkey it's his way or no way. It's his way or in jail. So especially if you have a platform and if you talk about some of the issues going on, you'll be in jail. It's not like in America that you like the president or you don't like the president but you can criticize them, right? Because you have the freedom to do it. Some of the countries in the Middle East is not like that. You told against the government or the regime that will make you a bad person. There are people in this country who say what happened in Turkey could happen here. Do you see any evidence of that? What is hyperbole and what is real when you look at it here? Obviously what's happened in America is definitely sad because there are two parts, Republican and Democrats and just because of the social needs and everything, they're going at each other and they try to embarrass each other. I feel like they forget the main goal. The main goal is to make this country a better place to live in. And when you think about America America should open their arms to everybody who is safe. But now just because of all that crazyness going on and everything I feel like they forgot the main goal. What is your suggestion from an outsider who is here now but has that still that perspective of what people should be focused on and what they shouldn't be focused on? I feel like the solution is right here our young generation. I feel like if we focus on what we need to focus on if our focus is just trying to bring peace and love in our country I think we're going to have a bright future and we can only do this with education. When you try to look ahead now to your role you said you want to use your celebrity for good and you still have to play basketball and focus on that. How do you manage those two and what do you think is worth leveraging your I feel like basketball is my escape. Whenever I step on the court it's all about me, my teammates and just going out there having fun and trying to win a basketball game. Because if I bring any of these conversations and the court with my team if it affects me my game will be very selfish of me because it's a team sport it's not an individual sport if it affects me it's going to affect my whole team I cannot bring this emotional or negative conversations in a locker room because it will affect everybody so whenever I'm in that locker room whenever I'm in the step on the court I try to forget about everything it's all about my teammates all about having fun just going out there and laughing and smiling but as soon as I step off the court these conversations will come again You can turn it off and on like that Well you have to I feel like that's the one thing that I've been really working on because not just these issues we can have a lot of family problems girlfriend, boyfriend problems but I feel like once we step on the court we just need to turn that switch when I say this is just now it's all about my team and my teammates Over the years when I've talked to other professional athletes what I think is surprising to the fans who are obsessed with it and with every moment on that is it can be kind of a lonely sort of world in a very insular world where whether you're going back to your room to play video games just to get away from it it can be sort of hermetically sealed a little bit and you're seeing the same people but not many else and every else can be a trap or a threat so it's hard to be a public activist and a successful player Emotional especially if you're playing basketball especially now you have to deal a lot now with all the social media and everything you play one bad game or like you get dunked on or I don't know something will happen the whole world you see like you don't go I see so many players I'm not going to give any name I see so many players get on their phone and check Twitter I see what people say about them I'm like oh my god this is so and they go out there they have their worst probably worst game of their career because they just mess up with their head so what are your social media roles um I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure but what are your social media roles um well I think just if you play a good game you know just get on social media do whatever you want there's no problem read all the covers do whatever you want but don't let it get you may make it into your head I feel like if you had a bad game or something happened that you get dunked on or whatever or you just got blocked Maen nhw'n caelnig o'r teamadau, rydych chi'n gallu teimladu llaw iawn i'r llwyr. Y llwyr llyfrfyrth, 12, 13, 14..., allan, rydych chi'n gallu llwyr iawn i ni, Ion Llyfrgell Tesseradol, i wedi cael ei nodio'r cygarodion, ond i wneud i'n dda chi'r newydd o ran a'r cyfrwyr. Nid yw'r llwyr yn gallu ddweud? Maen nhw'n wedi gwneud yn gweithio chi o'r basket iddyn nhw, ac maen nhw i ddim yn gweithio. If they see one of the players that they're talking about about, they will ask for autographs and pictures for sure. I was like that in my first couple years of my career. I was the one guy that always gets on and just checks on what people say. I was trying to troll the other players and stuff. I'm like, you know what, it's just silly and you just need to grow. So now you just check with the situation from the Jersey Shore and no one else? As long as he's okay, you're good. Brad Stephens has talked about the role you've played with this team. Last year you had a lot of talent on this team and it was kind of a toxic locker room before you got there. There was a lot of personalities. There's lots of cameras here. I want to see myself on a hostile spotlight so I'll picture it for the next day. But this year, what do you see and what do you see your role as being a presence that can keep that teamwork? You talk about talents. You can bring the most talented players in the league but if their chemistry doesn't click, it's just not going to work. It's all about chemistry. So what we always try to do is, you know, we always, you know, so if something happens, we always try to go out to eat together or hang out together, go to a movie or do this. So we always like, because the better friends become is going to transition on the court. You know, I always try to keep it cool with my point cards, though those are the ones that get me the ball. So I'm so cool with, I'm really, really close with Canba obviously. Mark is smart. So I always keep making a joke with him and trying to hang out with him and stuff because those are the ones that are going to get you the ball. But like, it's all about chemistry, man, because what we always do, obviously we have different players, different nationalities, different cultures, different religions, but what we try to do, we leave those in a locker room. So whenever we go out there, we only talk one language and it's basketball. And you know, I remember it was, I'm not going to give it up. So I made the Western Conference finals twice. The ones, one time I made it, I remember like when things were going good, right, everybody was taking a blame. If something happened wrong, it was like, hey, if you are up or by 20 and people were saying, okay, it's my fault, it's my fault. But if you were down 20, people started like trying to blame each other and say it's your fault and your fault. And we lost the live conference finals. But now this year, it's definitely different. With Brad's system, it's unbelievable. I have not seen any drama yet in March almost. And the system being what? For people who don't know? He trusts his team. He wants leaders. He doesn't want a point guard to look at him every position and say, hey, what are you going to run? He wants players to take responsibility. And when it's their fault, they just said it's my fault. And all he cares about is just being good friends and good chemistry. What is your sense right now of this team and how far it could go this year? I mean, of course our goal is to go out there and win a championship. And I feel like we have everything when we need it. We need to just go out there and win that ring. Especially if Tatum has a few more games. Yeah, he's been unbelievable, man. But it's fun, man, because when you have players like Tatum, Kemba, Gordon, Jaylen Brown, Gordon Haver, the game is just becoming so easy. You're just feeling so much comfortable and confident out there. Both hands on the floor. Especially with Marcus Smartman. I've never seen a player like that. He's probably the closest to the cage. Does he take everything seriously, too? He gets a scratch on his knee. I didn't not know that he was that kind of a person off the court. I know he was obviously, he's a monster on the court, but off the court. He's one of the best team that I had. What's it like to be stateless? You've said you're stateless. You don't have a passport. You have a green card, but does that take a mental toll? Actually, it's pretty messed up. A lot of my team is making fun of me and saying I'm homeless. That's so messed up. But it's just like they know that I'm not going to take it seriously. They would just say, amen. You know you're homeless, right? I'll tell you a very funny story. I think it was back in 2016 or 2017 when I started talking about these issues. I went to this really big show called Good Morning America or something. The lady older asked me, so Turkish government just revoke your passport. So you're thinking about becoming an American citizen. I'm like, yes, I'm a green card holder, so I have to wait five years. She's like, you know if you marry with an American woman, it's only three years. No, she was not hitting on me. She was too old. She was very old, but I'm like... Again, there's lots of cameras here. No, I just didn't give the person's name, so it's okay. But it's a limited universe of people who are American. Oh, we can edit that, I hope. But anyway, I'm like, oh that's very interesting because I never heard that rule before. So it's very interesting. I did not know the thank you for sharing me that and stuff. So we're done with the interview and it was live. And then I think I was done, I was looking at my phone, I have so many notifications on my phone, right? I have so many marriage proposals on social media from everybody. They were actually taking a picture video of their home and saying, hey, this is my home, you can stay here. It was wild. You don't have to be homeless. It's so weird, but it just shows that... I'll take it that way. It just shows how respectful, how nice and kind the American people are. I was like, delete it all, delete all, delete all. Given the very public role you've taken, given the controversy that you sometimes have to deal with, what is dating like for you? You said that you have to be conscious of that. Just because of the platform behind it and everything we have, so you don't know what the other person's intention is. So you have to be very careful of who you are hanging out with or who you are dating with because they don't know if they are marrying you for yourself or for your money or for your fame or for the attention or for the NBA world, whatever. So I always try to be careful. And they don't know if you're marrying them for the citizenship? I'm single. You've talked before about an interest after basketball in politics. How serious are you about that and what attracts you to political life? If you don't put good there, there's going to be bad. So I was like, just because I'm in DC probably every once every two months, hanging out, I don't want to say hanging out, but meeting with the senators and congressmen and congresswomen. When I sit down and talk to them, even like some of them said, you have a feature in this. First I wasn't taking it really serious, but then I was like, you know what, I think it would be a career for sure. What have you learned about politics and the media since you've been from the other side? You have a different perspective from the one that most professional athletes have, which is there's the media, politics is on the other side, and here we are in this world here. You're now going and lobbying and meeting with politicians, finding out who's effective, who gets things done, who talks, and also you've written quite a number of op-ed pieces, including for the globe and elsewhere. What have you learned about both politics and the media and what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong right now? With my situation, when I sit down and talk to them, when I start the conversation, they always stop in the middle and say, hey, don't worry about it, we already know this stuff. We already know your situation. How can we help you? And that gives me so much hope and that makes me actually very happy. What they're doing wrong, like I said again, I feel like we should only have one goal and try to bring peace and love in this country. And I feel like if we get distracted, that's a bad way. Very bad. We're going to open it up to questions in a minute now. I guess people will be going around. Do you, again, with the students here that you said are the future here, what's your advice for them about how to be effective? We have a situation right now in this country because of social media where there's a lot of yelling at each other and a lot of being right. There's less effort, it seems, at persuasion, trying to move people towards your camp. You're practicing persuasion. That's what you're trying to do now. What's your advice to them about how to do that? I will say just because of all the social media and everything, I feel like we need to use this platform. And if that platform is giving you, talk about the right things. And I was trying to educate my because basketball, I'm only going to play this basketball for 14, 15 years. And that's just a little part of my life. So I need to learn about what's going on. So when I talk about issues, it can become a conversation. Foreign affairs or the relationship between America and some other countries and what's going on in America. This is not even my second language, but I see whenever we hang out with our teammates, sometimes they go out there hanging out in clubs and doing all that stuff. I go home and try to read. I go home and try to learn about how can I explain myself better. Just because we have this platform, all those young people out there, kids, especially are idolizing whoever at the platform. So I feel like if we do the right thing, they're going to follow our footsteps. But if we do the wrong stuff, then that's a big problem. You told me before that playing in Boston is different. Yeah, for sure. That people will come up to you. I was very happy that I signed with Boston because the cities I played for before, people used to come up to me and I was like, oh hey, good game last night, good double, double, good this and that. But now Boston is because of the very educational and influential town. They come and say, oh hey, good article yesterday. Or good oped yesterday. Or hey, we saw this, we saw that, we read this. And then I can sit down and have a conversation with them. But I think it's definitely a blessing to be in this situation, especially in Boston. Great. All right. Are there questions? All right. So I think there are people with microphones coming around. Yes. Yeah, I have a question. So my intramural basketball team, we've got one open spot. We've got a game next Wednesday. I was wondering if you'd be interested in joining us to take that W together. First of all, what's your jersey says in the back? Okay, good. Leave your number on my comeback. Appreciate that. All right. We've got some down here. Thank you. Huge fan of yours, huge Boston Celtics fan. Made a bet with some friends and a sign after Al Horford left. And you just got signed. So it was like pretty cool. I said you were going to get signed. So I got my green card when I was eight years old. And I remember the first thing that my family did is we went to Canada, right? It was like this huge thing. We just kind of like got it and went to Canada. It was like awesome. And so I remember reading an article about how you got help from Justin Trudeau to get to the Christmas Day basketball game. I was just wondering what emotions were going through your head and all that. Well, first of all, actually, this year with the Boston Celtics, it was my first time that I left country in probably three-something years. It was the first time I left the country. I don't give them wrong. America is amazing. But you still want to get out of country and go to other places, right? And this year it was the first time that I left the country when I stepped on Canada. It smelled like freedom. I was like, you know what? This is so amazing to just come in here and just play bad because my job... I'm not a journalist. I'm not a politician. My job is to play basketball, especially going out there, playing at a Christmas Day, a huge blessing to just go out there and have fun with my team. It was definitely very amazing. It was very emotional for me, for sure. But Justin Trudeau's offer for Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau's offer has been, you know, helped me a lot. So I was very, you know, blessed. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Over here. Hi. My name is Yub. I'm a senior here at Tufts. First, I just want to apologize that you had to play for the Knicks. On behalf of all Celtics fans, we welcome you to Boston. I'm looking at the camera. If they have no cameras, I'll leave you some stories, but... Turn off the cameras. So my question is, you mentioned some of your teammates saying, like, oh, you're crazy for, like, speaking out. Now in 2020, how have some of your teammates, especially being on the Celtics with UF teammates like Jalen Brown, who are, like, very active in activism in general, how have they been supporting you now? It's been amazing to see how much support I get from my, not just my teammates, from the coaches, you know, from the fans, especially. The one-day breastfeeding said, hey, I know what's going on in your world. So if you want to take care, you know, day of a practice, just let me know. I might use it for just... But it just looked like you said, Jalen Brown, Jason the Tatum. Those guys are like, knows what's going on. And Kamel Walker, I actually, when my passport got revoked, I got texts from Russell Westbrook and Stephen Adams and they were asking me how am I doing this stuff. So it just, it's amazing to see. So it's amazing to see how much support I get from all those people and those people. These people have some, like, huge platforms. And a couple months ago, I think Jalen Brown posted something on his Instagram and, you know, just he posted a picture of me and says, freedom for all. So it definitely meant a lot to me because seeing your teammate supporting you that way is definitely huge. That's great. We'll be back. Hey, Ennis. It's good to see you again. I'm not sure if you remember. We worked together over at Niagara in Chicago with Hadise and Hilmi and Ron and those folks. So it's amazing to see you again. I wanted to let you know that one of the reasons I ended up coming here to Tufts of Study was because of my experience there. So really, kind of, serving in hismit with you guys was a huge honour. So thank you for keeping on being out there. I wanted to ask if you could tell us a little bit more about hismit, the religious component of it and if you've gone for it a little bit more about that. Thanks. Well, the one thing I will say is definitely it is all about education. You know, this organization has schools over 170 countries in the world like we talk about and these schools are not just for religious people. You know, you can be a Jew, you can be a Christian, a Muslim, you're a believing guy, you're a unbelieving guy. You can go to schools and learn about math and science and this organization believes in dialogue, you know. So like I said before, it doesn't matter what your background is or religion or whatever. We should only talk about one thing is peace of love and that should be our main goal. So it's just, like I said again, with dialogue and education, we can definitely have a bright future. How are you at math and science, given all this math and science? Not really good. I'm terrible. I'm actually open up a school in Oklahoma City and people like a lot of my teamers would give me a lot of, you know, say, you didn't even finish college. You only went to college for one year. I'm doing this for obviously, because I mean America gave me so much, right? America gave me so much and I want to be, I want to give back to America and the best way to give back to America is education. You know, because investing in our, I think Benjamin Franklin said this quote, I think investing in our futures gives the best interest. I feel like there's a really good code that who, he or she, opens a school door, closes a prison. You know, I feel like the best thing that we can give our generation is education. And why Oklahoma City starting there? Because I know there's some boss centers there. I know a lot of congressmen there. I played there two and a half years. I went to the Western Conference Finals there. You know, the people over there just, you know, they support them so much. So that's why I wanted to start there. You're next. Hello, my name is Mohammed and I was wondering if you could talk about more what it was like practicing your faith of Islam while you're playing basketball, you know, like prayers and like, especially with Ramadan coming up and fasting. Well it's not tough at all, especially in America, because people respect each other so much. So one thing I always do with my teammates, I never judge my teammates or, you know, they never judge me. I always try to learn, you know, what they believe and they always try to learn what I believe. So if we learn from each other, we can have a better conversation. There's so many times that when I want to, you know, my hotel room, I open up and start reading a Bible. So because once when we start having, you know, just one-on-one conversation with my teammates, I can ask them better and good questions. But, you know, it's just, it's not tough at all because like I said, again, people in America respect, you know, that's so much. Like I said, again, like with, you know, Oklahoma City, with New York, New York City, Boston, Celtics, you know, they gave me halal food. They gave me room for praying both in a practice facility and where we play. And, you know, they always respect us so much, but they only think they want to see us, just respect back. Okay. Good evening. Thank you. I've been watching basketball for like all my life. And one thing I've noticed recently is how basketball is a huge American brand, but it has a very strong international presence. And it feels like, especially recently, a lot of those thoughts, ideas, identities come into conflict a lot. Do you see perhaps where the NBA is or it's trying to promote its international presence in a way that's pro-social in ways that it's doing more humanitarian efforts and more philanthropic work internationally? And if not, what are some ways that you think the NBA can accomplish that? I think so because I mean like, now we always see like the, we have this, you know, the practice, I don't want to say practice games, but like we go to, like some, I don't go, but like my teammates or not, the other teams just can go, you know, they go to Mexico to play an exhibition game or to China or London or like some other India. They just went recently to teams. But like that definitely extends the game and makes it more, not just in America, makes it more international, makes it more globally. So I think it's just NBA has been doing an amazing job by, you know, A7 this game. Just building on that, that international profile that the NBA has better than any other professional sport, but we saw that come into conflict with Hong Kong and you reminded people about that when that was surprising to a lot of people how much the biggest names in basketball sided with Beijing over the democracy activists in Hong Kong. Did that surprise you? And what do you think is at play there? I will say this. I mean, NBA did an amazing job and they just said, hey, we are standing up for freedom and they can, whichever player want to say something, it's open to say. And I mean, I was like, it amazed me because, I mean, it's like what, after what, you know, they're more than NBA lost millions and millions, but NBA still said we are standing up for freedom and every player open to say whatever they want to say. But that wasn't the initial reaction, though. The initial reaction was, we got to worry about the... Well, that's individual. You know, some of the players decided to not say anything so you cannot control the players, obviously. Question? Hi, Anas, huge fan. I just want to... I remember reading a piece you wrote, a new piece you wrote for Fox News the day after the late Kobe Bryant passed away, and I just wanted to ask how your experiences of them and what you learned from him with his mentality would rather be on the court or setting up these youth sports programs, giving back to his community and being perfected in his craft is like impacting your will and your determination. Also excel on the court and do as best as you can, but also pursue your own humanitarian goals. Well, we were just in a couple... I think it was like 34 days ago, we were just in LA with Kobe's memorial, and you see all the basketball players, ex-basketball players, celebrities, and all the people came. I was like, you know what? He affected so many people in a positive way. I was like, one thing about Kobe, man, is just when you're a kid, if you take a shot, you're screaming Kobe. You know, when you yell, you see screaming Kobe, but one thing what he made is his legacies now bigger than a basketball, because not just on the court, but what he did off the court is just extending his brand while he was playing, but now it's like it was just so emotional and it was just so hard to just see that happen. For sure, but like Kobe was... I never seen a player that dedicated on that discipline, and you always hear that about like that three, four a.m. practices, right? I'm like, why? Just get your sleep in. Don't say it again, just get your sleep in. Just go to practice at 11, right? But his mentality was always so different, man. He was a different beast. I remember him, he came to Turkey, and when I was like what, when I was 19 years old, it was the first time that I was seeing him. I was just so, you know, just so nervous to even just meet him, and then he gave me some couple tips about how to, you know, take care of my body and actually messing my body, you know, with stretch, eat, ride, sleep well, and just always try to do some yoga, pilates and all that stuff. And I remember my first regular season game was against, you know, I guess, Lakers at Staples Center, and Kobe turned around and said my name. I'm like, oh wow, that actually just, it gives me, it gives me chills. But I think just, you know, losing it that way just hurt everybody, not just the sports world. It definitely affected and hurt everybody. And the first time I heard that news, I just didn't want to believe it. I thought my friend was just messing with me. And once I started, he got confirmed that it was really him, and it happened, and I was just speechless. You know, sometimes you have those moments that you just numb, you don't feel anything. And it just, I was like that, because he meant so much to our MBA, I was double the MBA too. He meant his daughter, so it was just very emotional. Yes, here? Right here? Sorry. Oh. You can be next. Hi, Enos. What would you say the biggest lesson basketball has taught you of life, and what has life taught you about basketball? What basketball taught me is probably just, you know, stay disciplined, and sacrifice. That sort of thing just really, it's by ninth year in the league, probably staying disciplined is one of the hardest things, because obviously you live in an MBA life, right? You want to be, you just want to go out, you want to just do some stuff we all know. You know, just, it just, when you see like the players like Kobe and LeBron, or someone like the best basketball players in the world, see how they live, it's just so fascinating, how they take care of their body. I think it was last year I heard that LeBron spends on a half million dollar or something on his body every year, like massage, food, this, and then I'm like wow, this is wild. That's a small percentage though. For me that's literally a small percentage, but like, but still. But the second thing is sacrifice. Sacrifice was definitely the second thing, because like obviously basketball players, you guys all know that. We want to go out there and play what, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 35 minutes and take a lot of shots, right? But it won't happen, it's not happen every time, every night. And what basketball taught me sacrifice is it doesn't matter, you play 5 minutes or 30 minutes, you're going out there, not just for yourself, for your teammates and for the fans. So whatever coach gives you, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, just go out and give yourself 100%. And when, I had so many teammates, it's very sad that I have so many teammates, when we lose, but when they have a good game, they were happy. And when we win, and when they had a bad game, they were not happy. It was just a shocker to me. So sacrifice is just sacrificing your own emotions for your teammates, it's definitely what basketball taught me. And you said what life taught me in basketball? I'm trying to think. What life taught me in basketball, is the best thing. You guys play basketball player, right? Do you guys have any answers? No. Well, I think what you said before is that life taught you that basketball is only this. Yeah, like you said, that basketball is only like 14, if you're lucky, if you take care of yourself in your 14, 15 years. When I had a basketball camp with little kids, I was asked like so, when you're done playing basketball, what are you going to do? I'm like, I was like, you cannot just go and play Fortnite all day. Now we have lots of people, you cannot just go home and make tiktok videos all day. Am I right? So we have to be able to just get another career, because once you're done with 34, 35, and you have a few, I mean if you live, average personal life is like 65, 70, right? You have another 30, 35 years. Hopefully. I might check out early. I don't have a million and a half on my body. Yeah, true. All right, I think we have time for I promise you a question. Dennis, thanks for making the time and being here tonight. So play on a team like the Celtics which has so many rookies and young players. I'm sure you're expected to act as a mentor a lot of times. Do you try to instill this idea of knowing the issues going on in the world and the community and teaching the younger players to get involved in those sort of things or how do you treat mentorship in the locker of younger players? I never go up to them and try to teach them anything. If they have a question for me, they can come and ask me and we sit down and talk about it. Because I don't know, I don't want them to feel like I'm trying to force them to learn something about me or about anything. Most of the time they always have and talk to me. I'm like, okay. They usually ask me, you've been in the play in the league for nine years, how did you do it, how did you take care of your body or when did you sleep or when you hit that rookie wall especially the rookies, what did you do or when you had the bad game how did you just move on to the next one. It's the conversations that but if it brings any deeper conversations then I'll just sit down and talk to them. Last question, I think. Who's got a really, really good closer question? Put your hands down if it's not a great question. She's been asking for really bad. Go ahead. Hi, I'm a huge fan. It's kind of a cheesy question. They didn't sit down. Just kidding. No, I'm just kidding. I'm a sophomore currently so I'm like a lot of kids here going through the process of trying to figure out what they want to do in life what they're passionate about. How would you recommend finding a way to find your passion and what you're interested in to the degree that you realize you're so passionate about basketball? I will just say this. If you're a parent, don't let your kids say I'm a parent and I love football. I want my kids to play football just because of I like football but my kids like basketball so just because of I like football and play football I'll always say like respect the kids and ask them what they want to do and once they say hey I want to do a basketball I want to ballet, I want to do this I always try to respect them I feel like just taking them and try to understand them as a kid is just very important because it will affect them later on in life and just make them do something they love. It's always nice to just see them smile especially the kids. I'll always say just try to have a conversation with them and ask them what they want to do not what you want to do or what the parents want to do. All right, well thank you very much and unfortunately we're out of time but thank you so much for all your time. Thank you so much. Last thing I'm going to say. So this morning, right this morning I was talking to Coach Brad and Coach Brad is like so I heard that you're going to a tough university and you're going to give a talk I'm like yes and he's like make sure you just keep it short I'm like why because you're going to a university and it's Friday night because I just make sure you keep it very short I'm like I got you Coach. Exactly. So I'm sorry if you guys have to go somewhere or if you guys want to do something I'm sorry I take you too much of your time but well I guess just The night's early. It's a long night. I remember my college colleges now. You done? Oh thank you so much.