NBA commissioner Adam Silver finds Kyrie Irving's statement unsatisfactory, will meet with Nets star
BOSTON -- On Wednesday night, while facing continued backlash for tweeting a link to an antisemitic documentary, Kyrie Irving issued a statement in which he said that he opposes "all forms of hatred and oppression." Irving and the Nets also committed $500,000 each to "causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance in our communities."
NBA commissioner Adam Silver appreciated that message but did not find it to be satisfactory.
"Kyrie Irving made a reckless decision to post a link to a film containing deeply offensive antisemitic material. While we appreciate the fact that he agreed to work with the Brooklyn Nets and the Anti-Defamation League to combat antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, I am disappointed that he has not offered an unqualified apology and more specifically denounced the vile and harmful content contained in the film he chose to publicize," Silver said in a statement released by the league.
Silver added that he will be meeting with Irving in person to discuss the matter in the coming week.
Prior to Wednesday, Irving's only public comments on the sharing of the documentary came in a spirited back-and-forth with a reporter in which Irving denied that his tweet "promoted" the documentary.
"Can you please stop calling it a promotion? What am I promoting?" Irving asked the reporter. "Yeah, I put it out there, just like you put things out there, right? OK. You put things out there for a living, right? Great, great, so let's move on. Let's move on. 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."
When that reporter began a follow-up by saying, "You have to understand," Irving replied: "I don't have to understand anything from you. Nothing. Nothing. No people that you're making up, bro. Move on. Move on. Next question."
Irving was kept from speaking to the media on Tuesday of this week, with GM Sean Marks explaining that the team did not want to further escalate the situation.
"He will come up here and do media again, but I think at this point, we don't want to cause more fuss right now, more interactions with people," Marks said. "Like let's let him simmer down and let's let this whole -- I guess, let's let cooler minds prevail. And I think we need to go out and become, you know, educate ourselves, educate the whole group, and get some direction, seek from the experts. And the experts is, one of them is certainly the [Anti-Defamation League]."
Irving's comments have become the focal point of all NBA discussions this week, notably with the Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal of "Inside The NBA" referring to Irving as an "idiot."
The public statement on Wednesday was a notable first step for Irving, but it clearly wasn't enough for Silver.
