Kyrie Irving Apologizes, Saying He Doesn’t ‘Condone’ Hate Speech

“Kyrie took ownership of his journey and had conversations with several members of the Jewish community,” the Nets said in a statement. “We are pleased that he is going about the process in a meaningful way.”

Since the suspension, the 30-year-old Irving lost a shoe deal with Nike and his future with the Nets was thrown into doubt. He apologized in an Instagram post after the suspension was announced, but the team’s general manager, Sean Marks, said on Nov. 4 that the apology wasn’t enough. Irving, a seven-time All-Star in the last year of his contract with the Nets, has long been one of the N.B.A.’s more controversial players while also being one of its most talented guards. In the past, he has publicly trafficked in other false conspiracy theories, such as the earth being flat. Last season, he became a cause célèbre for those opposed to government vaccine mandates when he declined to be vaccinated for the coronavirus, which kept Irving from playing in most of last year’s home games.

N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said in an interview with The Times on Nov. 10 that he did not believe Irving to be antisemitic. Irving has so far missed eight games.

Irving described his period away from the franchise as “a learning journey” and that there “was a lot of hurt that needed to be healed.” He also said he had done “a lot of reflection.”

“I got a chance to do that with some great people from the Jewish community, from the Black community, you know, from the white community,” Irving said. “I’ve had so many conversations with all of our races and cultures and religious groups of people just trying to better my perspective on how we live a more harmonious life.”

Irving did not specify who specifically he had conversations with, but said that he is a “man who stands for peace.”

“I don’t condone any hate speech or any prejudice, and I don’t want to be in a position where I’m being misunderstood on where I stand in terms of antisemitism or any hate for that matter, for anybody in this world,” Irving said. “So the process over the last few weeks was just a lot of conversations. I don’t want to get too deep into the details of those conversations, but they were very moving, very impactful. And it helped me become more aware of the repair that needed to be done.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/sports/basketball/kyrie-irving-nets.html