Remember how NBA star Kyrie Irving promoted an antisemitic movie on Twitter and then didn’t apologize? He later got suspended and did apologize:
Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who has been suspended since Nov. 3, said during a television interview published on Saturday that he wanted to “apologize deeply” for his posting of a link to an antisemitic film.
“I’m not antisemitic,” Irving told SNY, a local New York outlet, in his first at-length interview since his suspension from the team. “I never have been. I don’t have hate in my heart for the Jewish people or anyone that identifies as a Jew. I’m not anti-Jewish or any of that.”
Irving, who spoke through videoconferencing, reflected on his absence from basketball and the widespread criticism of his behavior after his post on Twitter, saying that he now understands “the power of my voice, the influence that I have.”
“I’m no one’s idol, but I am a human being that wants to make impact and change. In order to do that, I have to live responsibly and set a greater example for our youth, for my generation and the older generation,” he said. “So I just think I really want to focus on the hurt that I caused or the impact that I made within the Jewish community.”
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“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.”
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.”
Almost exactly a year later, and this is what this “man who stands for peace” who had done “a lot of reflection” and focused on the “hurt that [he] caused within the Jewish community” decided to do at a press conference:
Wearing the keffiyeh, a palestinian terror scarf, during a time we are defending ourselves against Hamas after one of the worst atrocities inflicted on the Jews in modern history, is certainly not the act of someone who truly cares about not hurting the Jewish community.
Nor are these tweets of his:
In contrast, he did not tweet even one thing specifically condemning Hamas’ massacre of men, women and children.
Yep, he truly learned nothing:
I wonder if Mavericks’ Jewish owner Mark Cuban will defend him this time.
