Home Daily Gossip Reggie Miller slams NBA players for being silent on Kyrie Irving’s antisemitism...

Reggie Miller slams NBA players for being silent on Kyrie Irving’s antisemitism flak

Reggie Miller didn’t hold back blasting the current NBA players for staying mum on the controversy made by Kyrie Irving.

As he served as the analyst of the first part of NBA on TNT’s double-header coverage on Tuesday, the hall of famer expressed his disappointment on the league cagers for not taking necessary action to condemn the All-star point guard, but were active on the other hand for criticizing team owners.

Irving filled the league’s controversy circle after sharing an Amazon link of “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” last week, a 2018 film being flagged due to its antisemitic tropes and themes.

“In years past, this league has been great because the players have led the way and they have strong voices,” Miller said during broadcast of the Chicago Bulls-Brooklyn Nets match, courtesy of Ryan Glasspiegel of New York Post. “When Donald Sterling stepped in it, when Robert Sarver just recently stepped in it, our voices in the basketball community and our players were vocally strong in some type of discipline being handed down — or be gone.

“The players have dropped the ball on this case when it’s been one of their own. It’s been crickets,” Miller added. “And it’s disappointing, because this league has been built on the shoulders of the players being advocates. Right is right and wrong is wrong. And if you’re gonna call out owners, and rightfully so, then you’ve got to call out players as well. You can’t go silent in terms of this for Kyrie Irving. I want to hear the players and their strong opinions as well, just as we heard about Robert Sarver and Donald Sterling.”

Earlier in the network’s pregame show, both Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal went off on air regarding the issue, calling Irving an “idiot” due to his promotion on the movie.

“I think the NBA dropped the ball. I think he should have been suspended. I think Adam [Silver] should have suspended him. You can’t take my $400 million and insult my religion,” said Barkley on the show. “The NBA, they made a mistake… We have suspended and fined people who have made homophobic slurs. I think if you insult the Black community you should be suspended or fined… I can’t believe we’re talking about this idiot.”

“When you’re as great at basketball as he is, people listen to you… It hurts me that we have to sit up here and talk about stuff that divides us,” O’Neal said. “We have to sit up here and answer for what this idiot has done. I stand for equality of all people.”

The Brooklyn Nets and the NBA haven’t made their move yet to slap a sanction on Irving, despite their respective statements denouncing antisemitism.

But given the ongoing public uproar for punishment to be handed in accordance to his wrongdoings, the league must step up and prove its credibility and standards it upheld.

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