The Brooklyn Nets have suspended Kyrie Irving for five games without pay following his refusal to apologise for sharing a link to an antisemitic film.
Last week, the seven-time NBA All-Star took to social media to tweet out an Amazon link to a three hour movie titled ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America’. Rolling Stone reported the 2018 film is littered with ‘antisemitic tropes’, which led Brooklyn management to act fast and distance themselves from his actions.
Irving held an uncomfortable press conference where he skirted around the subject, referring to the tropes as 'unfortunate'. ESPN have reported that the Nets - who distanced themselves from the star point guard's actions - have now suspended Irving.
The statement released by the Nets organisation read: "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 publicising 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.
"We were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material in the film. This was not the first time he had the opportunity - but failed - to clarify.
"Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organisation and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team. 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."
Earlier on Thursday, Irving failed to apologise for his anti-semitic posts on social media and his press conference was cut short as the 30-year-old spoke for the first time after being roundly criticised for his actions. When asked if he wanted to use the words 'I apologise', Irving simply responded: "I didn't mean to cause any harm. I am not the one who made the documentary."
Irving has courted controversy in the past, notably with his stance over the Covid vaccine, which led to long stretches of ineligibility to play or even practice with the Nets due to the New York City Covid vaccine mandate. The former Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers star was also reportedly an advocate of flat earth theory, although he later apologised.
Even just last month, Irving shared a video by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from 2002 to his Instagram story. The video - titled ‘Never Forget - Alex Jones Tried To Warn Us’ - refers to a 'New World Order' that would 'release plagues'.
Following the controversial post, the Nets insisted they did not advocate or tolerate the promotion of any form of hate speech, while the NBA released a statement labelling hate speech ‘unacceptable’ and the direct opposite to the league’s ‘values of equality, inclusion and respect’. Their statement read: “We believe we all have a role to play in ensuring such words or ideas, including antisemitic ones, are challenged and refuted and we will continue working with all members of the NBA community to ensure that everyone understands the impact of their words and actions.”
Irving was averaging 26.9 points per game to go with 5.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists as the Nets sit at 2-6. On Tuesday, the Nets revealed they had parted ways with head coach Steve Nash. The announcement came before the Nets’ 108-99 loss against the Bulls to go 2-6 on the season, with Jacque Vaughn appointed as interim head coach.
