The Brooklyn Nets suspended Kyrie Irving without pay for a minimum of five games after he shared an antisemitic film on his Twitter account. The Nets' player promoted the documentary Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, which contains false and hateful information about Jews.
The NBA team announced Irving's suspension through a statement in which it condemned his failure to acknowledge his antisemitism:
Over the last several days, we have made repeated attempts to work with Kyrie Irving to help him understand the harm and danger of his words and actions, which began with him publicizing a film containing deeply disturbing antisemitic hate. We believed that taking the path of education in this challenging situation would be the right one, and thought that we had made progress with our joint commitment to eradicating hate and intolerance. Accordingly, we are of the view that he is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets. We have decided that Kyrie will serve a suspension without pay until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct, and the suspension period served is no less than five games.
Statement from the Brooklyn Nets pic.twitter.com/699px8XYpx
- Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) November 4, 2022
Irving's response
The Brooklyn Nets point guard stated that he meant no harm to anyone:
I am not the one that made the documentary.
Kyrie Irving says he didn't mean to cause any harm in sharing a post to a film that has been described as anti-Semitic:
"I'm not the one that made the documentary" pic.twitter.com/NkRvZDoqbS
- Nets Videos (@SNYNets) November 3, 2022
Kyrie Irving posted on his Instagram account that he denounces "all forms of hatred and oppression" and that he is "aware of the negative impact" he caused.
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Rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, showed his support for the Nets' player by posting a photo on his Twitter account. Just days ago, the artist lost a multimillion-dollar contract with Adidas precisely for posting antisemitic content on social media.
Kyrie Irving Controversy
The publication of an antisemitic tweet is just the latest of Kyrie Irving's controversies. In 2017, the NBA star questioned whether the Earth is round or flat. On another occasion, he said that John F. Kennedy was assassinated because he wanted to do away with the banks.
Last year, he was one of the NBA players who refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
