The NBA holds a Jewish presence in the past, present and future.
Like it or not, there is a lot to say about Kyrie Irving’s latest actions.
Irving refused to take accountability for tweeting a link to an antisemitic movie and continues to let people down with his behavior. He told reporters he is “not going to stand down” and, when asked if he has antisemitic beliefs, his answer was unclear.
The antisemitic book and movie are now bestsellers on Amazon.
The Nets have suspended Irving without pay for no less than five games. In a statement released Thursday evening, the club said it was “dismayed” that Irving refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs and that the point guard was “unfit” to be associated with the organization.
He has since issued an apology, but this story is far from over. As Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote in his Substack: “All that’s left is for the world to decide how it should respond to him.”
One of the most important responses came from Irving’s teammate, Kevin Durant. But like the rest of this ongoing controversy, it was disappointing.
Durant said he is “not here to judge” somebody for their views and felt his team “could have just kept playing basketball” and “kept quiet” as an organization.
The two-time NBA Finals MVP quickly took to Twitter to clarify he does not “condone hate speech” or antisemitism and is about “spreading love”, no matter the circumstance. He added that the game of basketball is supposed to unite people.
The reality is that Durant’s immediate instinct, that the Nets should have kept quiet on this issue, is one that resonates with how the league as a whole has responded to this situation.
It is worth mentioning that former NBA players Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Reggie Miller have had strong words condemning antisemitism on TNT’s broadcast. Cavs big man Robin Lopez retweeted Abdul-Jabbar’s Substack post.
But otherwise, the rest of the league has stayed noticeably quiet.
Western Conference All-Star guard Devin Booker was asked how he felt about what was happening with Irving, and he said he wasn’t following it.
It is hard to criticize someone like Booker, who legitimately might not be attending to the news cycle in Brooklyn. The NBA season is very long and it is incredibly stressful, and there is certainly enough to worry about within his own organization.
If players like Booker are ill-informed about what is happening with Irving and the Nets, it is far better to say nothing than the wrong thing. It can be a tough ask to speak on a subject outside of your own community. LeBron James said as much in 2019:
“I also don’t think every issue should be everybody’s problem as well. When things come up, there’s multiple things that we haven’t talked about that have happened in our own country that we don’t bring up. There’s things that happen in my own community in trying to help my kids graduate high school and go off to college; that’s been my main concern the last couple of years.”
No one is asking these players to solve antisemitism or any form of bigotry. Their job is to play basketball, and they are the best on the planet at that job.
But when everyone in the league continues to say nothing, it is hard to not notice. No active player has spoken out against Irving’s actions. Would it be so much for any player to say that what Irving did is not OK?
This level of complacency and non-action is certainly not encouraging.
Wizards forward Deni Avdija is the only active player in the NBA who is Jewish. As noted by Madelyn Burke, it must feel incredibly isolating to see that no one in the league has spoken out directly against Irving’s actions.
The burden does not fall on the 21-year-old Avdija, who has only lived in the United States since 2020, to speak for the Jewish community. It is not up to Avdija, who likely has no pre-existing relationship with Irving, to determine whether Irving is antisemitic.
Avdija was forgiving when former NBA big man Meyers Leonard used an antisemitic slur last year. Outside of veteran Udonis Haslem, however, the voices of the NBA community were largely silent on this issue.
The NBA Players Association never issued a statement about Leonard. Their latest statement, denouncing antisemitism, did not mention Irving’s name. In fact, he remains a vice president of the NBPA. If he is unfit to represent the Nets, is he fit to serve in this position?
If the NBA is a brotherhood, as Durant and others have said, that means sticking up for everyone — including those who practice Judaism.
Avdija, of course, is not the only Jewish basketball player in league history. Omri Casspi and Jordan Farmar, who are both Jewish, both played several seasons in the NBA. They were even briefly teammates with the Kings in 2016.
Hall of Fame power forward Dolph Schayes was Jewish, and last year, he was named one of the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players. Five-time All-Star Rudy LaRusso was Jewish. Longtime NBA executive Ernie Grunfeld played nine seasons in the NBA. He is Jewish, and his parents are Holocaust survivors.
The NBA holds a Jewish presence in the past, present and future.
After leading the nation in scoring last season, Yeshiva University star forward Ryan Turrell hoped to become the first Orthodox Jewish player to make the NBA.
Last month, Turrell was selected by the Motor City Cruise in the first round of the 2022 NBA G League Draft. Turrell plans to play his games in a Detroit Pistons-branded yarmulke.
Turrell is scheduled to play in the first regular-season basketball game of his professional career this evening. Motor City will reportedly make the necessary accommodations for him to observe Shabbat.
USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s Cameron Tabatabaie shared a helpful list of resources for those interested in learning more about Jewish history, Black history and intersectionalism.
As the FBI warns of a “credible threat” to Jewish synagogues in New Jersey, now is as good of a time as any to engage with those recommendations.
NBA players certainly don’t need to issue high-level criticism on the deep roots of global antisemitism. But it would be nice if one of them actually said Irving made a mistake rather than deciding to “keep quiet” on a subject that actively harms other people.
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