Despite Adam Silver’s statement, Nets’ Kyrie Irving refuses to apologize. What now?
As battle lines have been drawn, attention will now turn to what the league will do about an action that many believe should be punished.
With the Nets star apparently standing firm, the question as to what happens next is anyone’s guess. If we take the recent debacle surrounding Kanye West as any indication, then it’s safe to say this is likely to get a lot worse before it gets any better.
Kyrie Irving refuses to apologize after Adam Silver’s pressure
“Deeply offensive antisemitic material...vile and harmful content.” Those were the words used by NBA commissioner Adam Silver in an official statement which also expressed disappointment about the fact that Nets guard Kyrie Irving had no apologized for promoting the film on social media. In case you missed it, Irving posted a link to “Hebrews To Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a documentary that alleges some outrightly dishonest ideas about the Jewish community and it’s history. This brings us to the present, in which we now know that Irving has refused once again to apologize.
Indeed, when asked directly if the joint statement released by him and the Nets was meant to be an apology, Irving had this to say: “I take my responsibility for posting that. Some things that were questionable in there, untrue. Like I said in the first time when you guys were asking me when I was sitting on that stage, I don’t believe everything that everybody posts. It’s a documentary, so I take my responsibility.” Pressed again, Irving simply doubled down. “I didn’t mean to cause any harm,” Irving said. “I’m not the one that made a documentary.”
Is Kyrie Irving antisemitist?
Eventually, Irving was directly asked if holds any antisemitic beliefs. While his answer to the question neither confirmed or denied, that in itself is an interesting point to note. “Again, I’m going to repeat I don’t know how the label becomes justified because you guys ask me the same questions over and over again. But this is not going to turn into a spin-around cycle, questions upon questions. I told you guys how I felt. I respect all walks of life and embrace all walks of life. That’s where I sit.” Irving was then pressed to give a yes-or-no answer and simply repeated himself. “I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from.” Asked to elaborate, he repeated, “I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from.”
Kyrie on Attack: The Nets PG hits out at his critics
According to his comments, it would appear that Kyrie Irving doesn’t believe he’s done anything wrong. Regardless of whether you agree with that notion or not, when Irving was asked if the backlash he received on social media about his posts surprised him, here’s what he said: “I think I can ask a better question,” he said. “Where were you when I was a kid figuring out that 300 million of my ancestors was buried in America? Where were you guys asking those same questions when I was a kid dealing with learning about the traumatic events of my familial history? And what I’m proud to come from.”
Irving didn’t stop there either. “I’m not here to compare anyone’s atrocities. Or tragic events that their families have dealt with in generations of time. I’m just here to continue to expose things that our world continues to put in darkness. I’m a light. I’m a beacon of light. That’s what I’m here to do. You guys ask me questions about basketball, I give you my expert opinion. You guys ask me about other things, I give you my opinion and it’s meant with whatever you believe the perception or the deception is.”
So, what in the film does Kyrie Irving disagree with?
Aside from the joint statement that he released with the Nets and the $500K that he and the team pledged to the Anti Defamation League, Irving has had no direct contact with the media since he got into a dispute with a journalist back on October 29th, after the Nets had just lost to the Indiana Pacers. “...Here answering questions of whether or not I’m sorry or not on something I didn’t create, and it was something I shared, and I’m telling everybody I’m taking responsibility,” he said at the time. This of course was in reference to the film that he posted a link to which started the who scandal in the first place. Where the film itself is concerned, it seems to build on a variety of stereotypical conspiracy theories about the Jewish community, including the idea that the holocaust during WWII did not actually occur.
“Those falsehoods are unfortunate,” Irving said of the obvious fabrications in the film. “And it’s not that I don’t believe in the Holocaust. I never said that. I never, ever have said it. It has not come out of my mouth. I never tweeted it. I never liked anything like it. So the Holocaust in itself is an event that means something to a large group of people that suffered something that could have been avoided.” Pressed on what in the film he specifically didn’t believe Irving said “I think some of the criticism of the Jewish faith and the community, for sure. Some points in there that were unfortunate.”