For his persistent refusal to apologize after promoting an anti-Semitic film, Kyrie Irving was suspended for at least five games Thursday by the Brooklyn Nets, the first to belatedly draw a penalty demanded by many in the NBA, astonishing passivity.
If the NBA did end up deploring, condemning the action and the attitude of the star, a week all the same after the facts, by the voice of its boss Adam Silver, the Brooklyn franchise has decided to pass to action with a sanction.
“We were appalled (on Thursday), when given the opportunity in front of the press, that Kyrie refused to say unequivocally that he has no anti-Semitic beliefs, nor to acknowledge specific hateful content in the film” , the Brooklyn franchise lamented in a statement. “Such a failure to disavow anti-Semitism is deeply disturbing, goes against the values of our organization and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team”, added the Nets for which it can therefore “no longer decently be associated with the clubs”. This suspension “will continue until the player remedies the negative impact of his conduct”, they concluded.
Conspiratorial and anti-Semitic documentary
Last Thursday, the Brooklyn star posted on Twitter and Instagram a poster of Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America with a link to the Amazon site to rent or buy it. Directed in 2018 by Ronald Dalton Jr, this documentary is adapted from a 2015 book of the same name in which it is written that “many famous high-ranking Jews” have “admitted” to having “worshipped Satan or Lucifer”.
This controversy echoes the case of Kanye West, suspended from Twitter and Instagram after writing that he was going to attack Jews. West, like Irving, seem to echo the Black Hebrew Israelite sect, which promotes the false belief that African Americans are the true descendants of the Israelites, and modern Jews, usurpers.
” New world order “
“This label of anti-Semite that is stuck on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality in which I live every day. I embrace all walks of life and all religions”, defended the player, who had already stood out in September by relaying on Instagram a message from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaking of the “New World Order”.
“Just because I post a link to a documentary doesn’t mean I’m anti-Semitic and automatically on the side of everyone who is. I am proud of who I am and I am able to reject all the labels that you stick on me because I study, ”he continued, rebellious.
“Kyrie made a reckless decision by posting a link to a film containing deeply offensive anti-Semitic ideas,” Adam Silver had earlier blamed him, saying he was “disappointed that he did not unreservedly apologize and speak out more. specifically the vile and harmful content conveyed by the film he has chosen to make public”.
The interested party, who has since removed his controversial posts, simply replied by saying that he took “responsibility”, acknowledging that “some things were questionable in there, wrong”. “I didn’t mean to hurt. But I am not the one who made the documentary”, he defended himself, before being more offensive: “Where were you when I was a child and when I learned of the traumatic events of my family history? “.