In the middle of the Brooklyn Nets’ Monday game against the Indiana Pacers, a group of eight people – men and women – were spotted watching courtside while wearing “Fight Anti-Semitism” black shirts. In the local broadcast of the match, the camera panned out to them with a standing Kyrie Irving in front.
This protest came across from last week’s controversial promotion of Irving on “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a 2018 film based on a 2015 book by the same name that is being flagged for containing antisemitic tropes. The embattled star point man posted an Amazon link of the said movie in his Twitter account, thus absorbing widespread backlash.
After three days of allowing it to remain his public platform, Irving delivered a cryptic move on Sunday evening – deleting the post that contains the antisemitic film.
For Aaron Jungreis, a long-time Nets season-ticket holder who was included on the group of people condemning antisemitism within the Barclays Center, Irving should be suspended and has to make a complete turnaround in his view of life.
“We felt that the Nets did not condemn an antisemite in their ranks,” Jungreis said, courtesy of ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “And we wanted to show love, we’re still Net fans and we love the team, but they should reprimand Kyrie because he’s full of hate. We’re full of love. Hopefully he’ll come around to the other side.”
In wake of the posting of the link, the Nets and team governor Joe Tsai expressed their disappointment on Irving’s action. The NBA, for its part, also expressed its condemnation. But amid public expectations that sanctions will be imposed, punishments are absent on the side of the 31-year-old star.
Jungreis further argued that the franchise didn’t take a necessary action to make Irving accountable of his unfair treatment, as the guard even became viral after his postgame verbal bout last Saturday, defending his post.
“I hope he realizes how much antisemitism he is stoking by putting out [a link to] a film like this,” Jungreis said. “Which is extremely anti-Jewish. And I hope he comes to his senses. … I think he should be suspended and he should understand what he did, but I don’t know if they will.”
Irving was barred by Brooklyn to enter the team’s news conference following their latest win on Monday against the Pacers. But in pregame, head coach Steve Nash expressed his hope that the situation will eventually allow the Nets to develop moving forward.
“I just hope that we all go through this together,” Nash said. “There’s always an opportunity for us to grow and understand new perspectives.
“I think the organization is trying to take that stance where we can communicate through this. And try to all come out in a better position and both more understanding and more empathy for every side of this debate and situation.”
