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Kyrie Irving is going to Kyrie Irving. The superstar NBA point guard with the questionable social media decision-making skills is mired in controversy due to one of his latest tweets, and apparently, he’s not backing down.
In case you need to get up to speed, Irving shared a tweet on Thursday (Oct. 27) of ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,’ with a link to purchase the film (it’s still up) and the doc is widely described as antisemitic, or at least per Rolling Stone. Considering the spiral everyone is witnessing with Kanye West due to his antisemitic rhetoric, the timing of the tweet couldn’t be any worse.
Nets owner Joe Tsai took to Twitter the next day to essentially slam Irving for the tomfoolery, and the NBA would issue a statement admonishing hate speech as well.
“I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of antisemitic disinformation,” tweeted Tsai. “I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
Then on Saturday (Oct. 29), Irving tweeted that he is not antisemitic, but he is OMNIST or, one who believes in all religions.
The Nets took an L in Saturday night’s game. The post-game presser turned out to be a doozie, with Irving getting into a heated back and forth with a reporter.
Reports ESPN:
“I’m not here to argue over a person or a culture or a religion and what they believe,” Irving said following the Nets 125-116 loss to the Indiana Pacers. “Nah, this is what’s here. It’s on a public platform. Did I do anything illegal? Did I hurt anybody? Did I harm anybody? Am I going out and saying that I hate one specific group of people? So out of all of the judgment that people got for me posting, without talking to me, and then I respect what Joe [Tsai] said, but there has a lot to do with not ego or pride of how proud I am to be [of] African heritage, but also to be living as a free Black man here in America, knowing the historical complexities for me to get here.
“So I’m not going to stand down on anything that I believe in. I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”
Also, Irving clearly can’t keep up with his own free thinking. The back and forth when the aforementioned reporter, Nick Friedell, asked him about the tweet quickly went left, and full of cringe, with Irving refusing to answer the question (“Why promote an antisemitic film?”) amidst the usual “free thinker” spin.
Irving did say he doesn’t stand with Alex Jones, though.
Needless to say, the reactions have been, something… See more in the gallery.
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