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Celtics star and National Basketball Players Association vice president Jaylen Brown believes the union will appeal Kyrie Irving’s suspension handed down by the Nets, stating that “a lot of the players expressed discomfort with the terms” handed down by the team. The point guard was suspended for at least five games, and he must satisfy several conditions to return to the court after he shared an antisemitic film on his Twitter account and refused to apologize for it on several occasions.
“I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic,” Brown told The Boston Globe. “I don’t think people in our governing bodies think he’s antisemitic. He made a mistake. We understand from an outside perspective how important sensitivity is to not condone hate speech and not condone anything of that nature. It’s sensitivity to the dialect around that. We don’t want to stand up for somebody in order to not condemn hate speech, but I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic. And hopefully the NBA feels the same way.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver released a scorching statement condemning Irving’s actions and failures to apologize on the matter. He also said he planned on meeting with Irving in person, which Brown believes will take place Tuesday. Brown also said the situation is uncharted territory when considering an NBA team is handing down a punishment for a social media post with no context.
“There is an interesting distinction between what somebody says verbally and what somebody posts as a link on a platform with no description behind it,” Brown said. “Some people will argue there’s no difference and some people will argue there is a difference. There’s no language in our CBA. There’s no rules against it. This is uncharted territory for everybody, and everybody is trying to figure out the difference between the two.”
Irving, who is also a vice president for the NBPA, posted a link to the film Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America on his Twitter page, and according to Rolling Stone, the film, which is based on a 2015 book of the same name, is “stuffed with antisemitic tropes.” The 30-year-old initially defended his posting of the film and dismissed the label that he was antisemitic. On Thursday when talking to reporters, he said, “I’m not the one who made the documentary,” when addressing his post.
As a result of the repeated refusals to apologize, the Nets handed down their minimum five-game suspension for Irving on Thursday after his comments. That night, he issued an apology to Jewish communities and families. His conditions to return are: a condemnation of the movie, a meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai, a meeting with Jewish leaders and members of the Anti-Defamation League, sensitivity training, antisemitic/anti-hate training and a $500,000 donation to anti-hate causes.
But Brown thinks those conditions are too stringent without proper written guidelines in the collective bargaining agreement.
