Since sharing an anti-Semitic movie on Twitter, the basketball star Kyrie Irving has alternated unconvincing apologies with defiance.
Irving and other N.B.A. players for endorsing such conspiracies. “It’s a very small step to becoming a Holocaust denier or a slavery denier,” Kornheiser said. The Nets signed Irving, in 2019, agreeing to pay him $136,490,600 across four years. Why they did it was immediately obvious—he scored fifty points in his team début—but the risks involved were quickly apparent, too, as was the team’s leniency.
The Nets had other issues to contend with. They were planning the exit of the team’s coach, Steve Nash, and announced it in the midst of the Irving controversy. Shams Charania soon reported that the Nets were planning to replace him with Ime Udoka, who is currently serving a yearlong suspension as head coach of the Boston Celtics, for breaking workplace rules; his misdeeds apparently included speaking disrespectfully to a female staffer.
Kevin Durant evidently learned about Nash’s firing from the television. He was taking a nap, he later said, with his TV tuned to ESPN, and saw the news when he woke up. He was “shocked,” he told reporters, later that night. This was somewhat hard to believe, given that Nash’s departure had seemed inevitable for days, if not weeks or even months—and that Durant himself had reportedly told Tsai, during the summer, that if Nash and Marks weren’t fired, then the Nets would have to trade him.
The Nets had a game that night, against the Chicago Bulls, on national television. Durant was, as ever, sublime: swishing turnaround jumpers, his long legs gliding across the floor. Sometimes even now, knowing all he has done and can do, seeing his gravitational control is startling. Late in the third quarter, all five Bulls converged upon him as he drove into the paint—only to swing the ball down low and hand it off to his teammate Edmond Sumner as his body flew past the basket.
“I ain’t here to judge nobody or talk down on nobody for how they feel, their view or anything,” Durant said, after a shootaround on Friday, following Irving’s suspension. “I just didn’t like anything that went on. I feel like it was all unnecessary. I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don’t like none of it.” Later, he took to Twitter to clarify that he did not condone hate speech or anti-Semitism.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Debra Messing, Mila Kunis Sign Letter Urging Amazon to Remove Antisemitic Movie Pushed by Kyrie IrvingDebra Messing, Mila Kunis, and Mayim Bialik are among the celebrities who have signed an open letter urging Amazon and Barnes and Noble to stop selling the antisemitic documentary and book pushed by Kyrie Irving.
Read more »
Nets suspend Kyrie Irving for at least 5 games without pay - New York Amsterdam NewsThe Brooklyn Nets are suspending Kyrie Irving for at least five games without pay, saying they were dismayed by his failure to “unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs.”
Read more »
Kyrie Irving Has 'Productive, Understanding' Meeting With Adam SilverKyrie Irving Has 'Productive, Understanding' Meeting With Adam Silver - RealGM Wiretap
Read more »
Suspended Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving meets with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, AP reportsAdam Silver said last week Kyrie Irving made a “reckless decision” to post on his Twitter feed a link to a film that contains antisemitic material.
Read more »
Kyrie Irving Meets With NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, per ReportAs expected, the Nets star reportedly met with Silver about his sharing of an antisemitic film a couple weeks ago.
Read more »
PolitiFact - Kyrie Irving was not part of 2019 survey about ‘greatest threat to world peace’No, a German survey did not conclude Brooklyn Nets basketball player Kyrie Irving was the “greatest threat to world peace.” The image purporting to show the results is manipulated.
Read more »