Kyrie Irving has deleted a tweet linking to a movie criticized for anti-Semitic messaging following days of uproar for the controversial Brooklyn Nets star.
The 30-year-old grabbed attention last week after sharing an Amazon link on Thursday to the 2018 film ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.’ The movie is based on a 2015 book by the same name, which Rolling Stone described as ‘venomously anti-Semitic.’
Both the NBA and Nets owner Joe Tsai condemned Irving’s post in public statements, although the league did not mention the All-Star guard by name. Neither the NBA nor the Nets have suggested that Irving will face any punishment for linking his Twitter account to anti-Semitic material.
Irving did deny being anti-Semitic in a tweet on Saturday, but he doubled down on his decision to share the link a day later, telling reporters ‘I’m not going to stand down on anything that I believe in.’
It’s still not clear why Irving finally decided to do so, but he did take the offending tweet down on Sunday.
Kyrie Irving became embroiled in a verbal spat with a report over his controversial tweet
The Brooklyn Nets star caught the attention for publicizing the 2018 film ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America’ on social media with a link to its Amazon page
Both the film and book, ‘Hebrews to Negroes,’ try to blame Jewish people for anti-black racism.
‘Western education and religion tries to teach the world that blacks are cursed with their skin color by the Curse of Ham/Canaan,’ the film says, according to Rolling Stone. ‘This is also taught in European Jewish documents and in the teachings of the Talmud book in Judaism. Some can say that it established the base for Black racism even before the KKK.’
‘I watched it,’ Irving said Saturday. ‘I watched it and read books. I had a lot of time last year to read a lot, good and bad about the truth of our world.’
Irving was asked if he thought of the film as anti-Semitic, to which he answered: ‘It’s on Amazon, public platform. Whether you want to watch it or not is up to you.’
According to the New York Post, Irving has spoken with Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who also tweeted about the issue on Saturday.
‘Thanks to my friend @joetsai1999 and @BrooklynNets for responding quickly to condemn the promotion of #antisemitic hate speech,’ Greenblatt tweeted Saturday evening. ‘All of us at @ADL appreciate your leadership and look forward to continuing our discussions.’
Greenblatt’s and Tsai’s respective statements were posted prior to the Nets’ Saturday night loss to the Indiana Pacers in Brooklyn, after which Irving doubled down on his decision to post the offending tweet in the first place.
‘I respect what Joe said, but there has a lot to do with the, not ego or pride of how proud I am to be an African heritage, but also to be living as a free black man here in America, knowing the historical complexities for me to get here,’ Irving said. ‘So I’m not going to stand down on anything that I believe in. I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.’
According to the New York Post , Irving has spoken with Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who also tweeted about the issue on Saturday
The NBA released a statement , insisting hate speech of any kind is unacceptable
When ESPN’s Nick Friedell began to ask about the ‘promotion’ of the movie and book, Irving sparked a testy exchange.
‘Can you please stop calling it promotion?’ Irving said. ‘What am I promoting?’
Friedell then began to explain that Irving had shared it to his platform but the guard quickly interrupted, asking: ‘But do you see me promoting it? Yeah I put it out there just like you put things out there right? You put things out there for a living right? Great, so let’s move on.’
Friedell tried to interject again but Irving continued to talk over him, saying: ‘Let’s move on. Don’t dehumanize me up here. I’m another human being. I can post whatever I want. So say that and shut it down and move on to the next question.’
‘Kyrie, you have to understand,’ Friedell said, before Irving snapped back.
‘I don’t have to understand anything from you,’ Irving said, accusing Friedell of conjuring up the exchange to share on Instagram and ‘be famous again.’
Tsai (center) said ‘this is bigger than basketball’ in his response to Irving’s posts on Friday
Irving’s arguments seemed contradictory at times when he spoke to reporters after Saturday’s loss.
At one point, Irving confusingly acknowledged to be in a ‘unique position to have a level of influence of my community’ only to do a complete reversal a moment later.
‘I am no different than any other human being,’ he told reporters. ‘You guys come in here and make up this powerful influence I have.’
Irving explained that he had shared the movie’s Amazon page as he had come to it because his name ‘translates in the Hebrew language as Yahweh’ and he had searched the site for Yahweh.
When asked if he has watched the film, Irving insisted that he had but when pressed if he therefore could understand why people implied the work had anti-Semitic leanings in it, he responded: ‘We’re in 2022, it’s on Amazon a public platform, whether you want to go watch it is up to you.
‘There’s things being posted everyday. I am no different from the next human being, so don’t treat me any different. You guys come in here and make up this powerful influence that I have over top of the adultery of, you cannot post that. Why not? Why not?
‘This is what is here, it is on a public platform. Did I do anything illegal?’
The NBA star addressed the tweet Saturday as he claimed the anti-Semitic label ‘being pushed on him’ is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth he lives in everyday
Irving had taken to Twitter before the game Saturday to claim the criticism of his tweet was not justified and does not reflect reality.
‘I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs,’ Irving wrote, referring to a belief in all religions.
‘The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday.’
During the press conference, Irving also addressed his post from six weeks ago in which he shared to his Instagram story a 2002 video of Alex Jones decrying a ‘New World Order.’
He said that he doesn’t support Jones or his Sandy Hook hoax claims, but did say that the video he shared was about ‘occults’ in America and ‘it’s true.’
‘I do not stand with Alex Jones – position, narrative, court case that he had with Sandy Hook or any of the kids that felt like that had to relive trauma or the parents that had to relive trauma or to be dismissive to all the lives that were lost during that tragic event.
‘My post was a post from Alex Jones that he did in the early ’90sor late ’90s about secret societies in America of occults, and it’s true.
‘I wasn’t identifying with anything of being a campaignist for Alex Jones or anything. It’s just here are posts … and it’s funny, it’s actually hilarious because out of all the things I posted that day that was the one post everyone chose to see. It just goes back to the way our world is and works. I’m not here to complain about it. I just exist.’
The 30-year-old raised eyebrows last month for sharing a video by conspiracy theorist Jones from 2002 to his Instagram story.
The video, entitled ‘Never Forget – Alex Jones Tried To Warn Us,’ refers to a ‘New World Order’ that would ‘release plagues’.
In the video Jones said: ‘Yes there have been corrupt empires. Yes they manipulate. Yes there are secret societies. Yes there have been oligarchies throughout history.
‘And yes, today in 2002, there is a tyrannical organization calling itself the New World Order… by releasing diseases and viruses and plagues upon us, we then basically get shoved into their system.’
The 2002 clip of Jones – ordered to pay nearly $1billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting – was one of several videos shared to Irving’s story at the time.
Irving, who serves as vice president on the player’s association’s executive committee, posted videos which discussed a range of topics, including ‘the saturation of the media with celebratory posts about the late Queen Elizabeth II’ and decolonization.
Irving shared a video by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from 2002 to his Instagram story last month. The 20-year-old video, entitled ‘Never Forget – Alex Jones Tried To Warn Us,’ refers to a ‘New World Order’ that would ‘release plagues’
Irving is no stranger to conspiracies having long been willing to embrace theories such as the earth being flat or that the moon landing was staged.
The unvaccinated basketball star was unable to play in most of Brooklyn’s home games last season because he did not meet a New York City vaccine mandate for workplaces.
In October 2021, he started following and liking Instagram posts from a conspiracy theorist who claimed that ‘secret societies’ are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect black people to a master computer for ‘a plan of Satan.’
In apologizing for his endorsement of the Flat Earth ‘theory’ back in October 2018, Irving admitted to being a conspiracy theorist.
‘I was definitely at that time, ”I’m a big conspiracy theorist. You can’t tell me anything.” I’m sorry about all that,’ Irving said.
‘Even if you believe in that, don’t come out and say that stuff. That’s for intimate conversations because perception and how you’re received, it changes. I’m actually a smart-ass individual,’ he explained, 18 months after he first told an interviewer that ‘The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. … It’s right in front of our faces.’
The 30-year-old spoke to the media following the Nets’ 125-116 drumming against the Pacers