Getty Kyrie Irving #11, Brooklyn Nets, Jaylen Brown #7, Boston Celtics.
Following all the controversy that has surrounded him over the past week, the Brooklyn Nets suspended Kyrie Irving for five games on Nov. 3, as reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Nets have suspended Kyrie Irving at least five games without pay.
Charania then reported on Nov. 5 the six steps that Irving will have to take a be back on the court for the Nets.
Sources: Nets have delivered Kyrie Irving six items he must complete to return to team:
– Apologize/condemn movie
– $500K donation to anti-hate causes
– Sensitivity training
– Antisemitic training
– Meet with ADL, Jewish leaders
– Meet with Joe Tsai to demonstrate understanding
Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who is one of the National Basketball Player Association’s vice presidents, gave his thoughts on his former teammate’s actions to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.
“I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic,” Brown said. “I don’t think people in our governing bodies think he’s antisemitic. He made a mistake. We understand from an outside perspective how important sensitivity is to not condone hate speech and not condone anything of that nature. It’s sensitivity to the dialect around that. We don’t want to stand up for somebody in order to not condemn hate speech, but I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic. And hopefully, the NBA feels the same way.”
Brown and Irving played together for the Celtics from 2017 to 2019.
Brown Says There Will be an Appeal
Brown told Washburn that Irving’s actions from a technical standpoint did not break any rules because Irving did not say anything when he posted a link to the antisemitic film on his Twitter page.
“There is an interesting distinction between what somebody says verbally and what somebody posts as a link on a platform with no description behind it,” Brown told Washburn. “Some people will argue there’s no difference, and some people will argue there is a difference. There’s no language in our CBA. There’s no rules against it. This is uncharted territory for everybody, and everybody is trying to figure out the difference between the two.”
Brown later told Washburn that he had been talking with all sides and that the players association will appeal the suspension.
“It’s definitely a conversation that’s going on,” Brown said. “I told people that are participating in this ongoing discussion that everybody is watching. I think there’s a big meeting on Tuesday amongst Adam, Kyrie, and whomever they decided to be there.
“I’ve been talking to Kyrie, I’ve talked to Adam, I talked to Tamika, I’ve talked to pretty much everybody about this situation.
“But I’m expecting the NBPA to appeal the suspension from Brooklyn. The terms, etc. that went into his return. The terms for his return, they seem like a lot, and a lot of the players expressed discomfort with the terms.”
Since the suspension, Irving has missed two of the five games he’s been suspended for.
Brown Says Irving Made a Mistake
While Brown said that he believes Irving is not antisemitic, he made it clear that Irving made a mistake when he did what he did.
“He made a mistake. He posted something,” Brown said. “There was no distinction. Maybe we can move forward, but the terms in which he has to fulfill to return, I think not just speaking for me, speaking as a vice president from a lot of our players, we didn’t agree with the terms that was required for him to come back and we’re waiting for this Tuesday meeting to happen to see what comes of it. But we’ll go from there. That’s all I’ll say.”
Irving is also one of the vice presidents of the NBPA.