After being called out by Nets governor Joe Tsai for promoting a link to an antisemitic film, Nets star Kyrie Irving took a defiant stance in a Saturday press conference, denying that the work is antisemitic and saying that he is “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,” Irving said.
Steve Nash confirmed that someone from the Nets organization talked to Irving prior to Saturday’s game about the issue, but no specifics about the conversation were revealed. The NBA released a vague statement condemning hate speech and antisemitic ideas.
According to ESPN’s Jesse Washington, the team and league need to do more to address Irving’s “dangerous” behavior, arguing that promotion of the material Irving shared could lead to violence.
Via ESPN’s Andscape:
“No, Irving did not explicitly call for violence, and has said nothing to indicate he would go that far. He doesn’t have to. There are too many disturbed people out there who are willing to kill, who consider themselves foot soldiers in an army fighting threats that exist only in their own twisted minds. By posting a link to a book that falsely paints Jewish people as the enemy, Irving could be giving ammunition to the next killer. And even without bloodshed, all of society suffers when prominent people encourage the falsehood that one group, just because of its ancestry, is inherently sinister or dangerous.
…. Posting a link to this type of material does harm people. It reinforces an ancient ignorance that continues to inflict misery on countless people today. Just ask the Jewish kids who endure taunts about the Holocaust in school, or the Jewish families whose homes have been defaced with swastikas. Elevating these lies has real consequences, but Irving refused to accept that fact.”
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