1. To the surprise of no one, the Inside the NBA crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal had strong opinions on the recent saga involving Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who used his Twitter account to promote an antisemitic film last Thursday.
Barkley and O’Neal didn’t pull any punches in ripping Irving, with both hosts referring to him as “an idiot.” Barkley expressed his disappointment that the NBA didn’t suspend Irving, while Shaq called out Irving for being divisive and not caring about ramifications of his actions.
But it was Johnson’s words that felt the most powerful to me.
“I just think Kyrie’s just part of this,” said Johnson. “I just think we’ve lost our way. I think in this country we’ve lost our way. I think people have forgotten what it’s like to put the thought process into, ‘If I put this out there, who am I gonna hurt?’ They’re giving no thought to that. Where’s civility these days? Where’s empathy? And it’s a worrisome road and it’s a dangerous road we find ourselves on now.”
To say we have a behavior and civility issue in this country is not news. Things have been going downhill for a long time, and they’re getting worse on a daily basis.
It’s not just that Kyrie promoted an antisemitic film via his Twitter account. It’s that Kyrie promoted an antisemitic film and then got pissed off that a reporter dared question his decision and reasoning to promote an antisemitic film.
When someone tried to explain to Irving that supporting the tropes in the movie was offensive, he flat-out refused to be open to hearing that side of it and showed he wasn’t interested in having any sympathy for the people he offended and instead said HE was being “dehumanized.”
There was no remorse, no desire to understand why his actions were hurtful, no attempt to become aware that amplifying the film was a problem.
But as Johnson correctly pointed out, that’s where we are these days. Civility and empathy are out the window. And when you get called out for the lack of civility and empathy, the move these days from a troubling number of public figures is to just double down.
2. We can’t say that EVERYONE doubles down. In Tuesday’s Traina Thoughts, I wrote about Bally Sports’ NBA reporter Brandon Robinson having a trainwreck of a take on Kyrie Irving. On Tuesday afternoon, Robinson deleted the video that featured his take from his Twitter account and offered an apology, so credit to him for handling this the right way.
3. Here’s why Inside the NBA is the greatest. One minute, the crew is offering thoughtful and passionate takes on Kyrie Irving and the next minute, Shaq is showing off his disgusting feet.
4. Not only did the Astros get blown out in Philly on Tuesday night, but they struggled to get some food. Before losing 7–0 in Game 3 of the World Series, the team tried to order food from two Philadelphia restaurants, that refused to cater for the enemy.
5. A Seahawks wide receiver has opened up and shared the inside details about one of the biggest stories of the 2022 NFL season: when he had to be carted off the field in Week 4 to use the restroom.
6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features a conversation with Sports Business Journal‘s John Ourand about the latest sports media news. Topics covered include:
• Amazon’s Thursday Night Football ratings
• Jim Nantz out, Ian Eagle in for the NCAA tournament
• World Series ratings issues
• ManningCast perspective
• NFL Sunday Ticket update
The show closes with my weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata, where we discuss a terrible gambling loss, the World Series and Taylor Swift.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
