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At the end of a 24-hour period that saw an agreement among Kyrie Irving, the Nets and the Anti-Defamation league to combat hate following his promotion of antisemitic material; a corresponding message from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver condemning Irving for not apologizing; and Irving doubling down during a six-minute media scrum, the expected has happened: the Nets have suspended Kyrie Irving for at least five games and possibly longer for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
From the team’s official statement:
“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.”
The suspension is without pay, meaning at least a loss of $2.2 million in salary.
The Nets did not define the “series of objective remedial measures” but Silver said that Irving needed to apologize and condemn the video, Hebrews to Negroes, which Silver described as “vile and harmful content.” Since Irving’s promotion of the video, it has jumped to No. 1 on the Amazon best-sellers in two categories, “Best Sellers in Religion & Spirituality” and in “Best Sellers in Ethnic Studies.”
Here’s the rest of the Nets' statement.
“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.
“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 organization, 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.”
Meanwhile, Ian Begley of SNY is reporting that ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says the organization will not be accepting Irving’s $500k donation:
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says ADL is not accepting Kyrie Irving’s $500K donation: ‘We were optimistic but after watching the debacle of a press conference, it’s clear that Kyrie feels no accountability for his actions. @ADL cannot in good conscience accept (the donation).’ 1/2
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) November 4, 2022
From Greenblatt:
We were optimistic but after watching the debacle of a press conference, it’s clear that Kyrie feels no accountability for his actions. @ADL cannot in good conscience accept his donation.
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 4, 2022
Later, Israel’s UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, tweeted out his praise for the Nets action...
The Nets are showing no tolerance for hate. We can’t pick and choose when we want to stand against injustice. Kyrie hopped on the trend of being antisemetic & was put in his place quickly. I hope he opens his eyes beyond the conspiracy theories he spreads & can educate himself. pic.twitter.com/navx6aNStH
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) November 4, 2022
The Nets play again on Friday night. They play in order, the Wizards, Hornets, Mavericks, Knicks and Clippers over the next five games.
- Nets Suspend Kyrie Irving Indefinitely After Antisemitic Movie Post - Tania Ganguli - New York Times
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving for at least 5 games without pay - Brian Mahoney - AP
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving: ‘Currently unfit to be associated’ with team - Ethan Sears - New York Post
- Anti-Defamation League gives back Kyrie Irving’s $500,000 donation - Ethan Sears - New York Post
- Nets’ Kyrie Irving can go to hell with his anti-Semitic stupidity - Phil Mushnick - New York Post
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving after ‘failure to disavow antisemitism’ - Barbara Barker - Newsday
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving at least five games without pay - ESPN
- Brooklyn Nets suspend ‘currently unfit’ guard Kyrie Irving at least 5 games for refusal to disavow antisemitism - David Matthews - New York Daily News
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving for ‘no less than five games’ - Alex Smith - SNY
- Kyrie Irving Did This to Himself - Michael Rosenberg - Sports Illustrated
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving for 5 games minimum: ‘He is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets’ - James Herbert - CBS Sports
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving 5 games after PG doesn’t apologize for posting antisemitic video - Jack Baer - Yahoo! Sports
- The Nets Gave Kyrie Every Chance To Douse The Flames He Fanned—And He Instead Poured More Fuel - Steve Lichtenstein - Steve’s Newsletter
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving for refusing to disavow antisemitic beliefs - Ben Golliver - Washington Post
- Nets suspend Kyrie Irving for at least 5 games - Alex Schiffer - The Athletic
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