OT Kyrie Irving is certain that he is not an anti-semite; many others disagree

While both seem a bit predictable, the League's failure surprises me more. There is a fraternity of players, and while there is clearly a history of Jews being targeted (see ALL OF RECORDED HISTORY), there is also a history and a continuation of racism against black Americans IN AMERICA, so while the lack of reaction is disappointing, it is not unexpected. It's a byproduct of solidarity, I suppose. Racism against African Americans here is much more immediate (for now and for many of the players in the NBA) than any discrimination against American Jews as a group.

That being said, it's terrible. Kanye's clearly imbalanced words dovetail with Kyrie's endorsement in both timing and content, and beyond the coincidence, there seems to be a deeper, more confusing source to all of this. Whatever it is, it isn't simple.

Ironically though, all this just seems to reinforce that all groups of human are exactly the same regardless of their group.

Can't we all just get along? Obviously not.

 

the apology wasn't forced. They weren't pulling his fingernails out or waterboarding him or holding a gun to his mother's head

he made a choice to engage in willful bigotry. He made a choice to double down on that bigotry. He only chose to issue an apology after he had to actually suffer a consequence for his first couple of choices. We don't have a shred of evidence he is sorry for his bigotry. All we have is evidence he's sorry to be losing money. Fuck that guy

 

I didn’t even fuckin’ read it. It wasn’t from him regardless.

 

Amare’ Stoudamire traced his roots back to Israel of I’m not mistaken. He has fully committed to Judaism. And last I had checked he was an assistant WITH the Nets. HBO’s REAL SPORTS did an amazing piece on it. When he came through with them last season, I approached him and told him how impressed I was with his story, he sat down next to me in the media room during dinner and we talked about it for about 5 min. What a great dude who found himself.

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hbo-s...res-journey-from-the-nba-to-orthodox-judaism/

 

Unfortunately looks like he stepped down from his coaching position last spring because it conflicted with his praying schedule.

 

About 4 years ago I was on a business trip in Haifa, and the local team (Macabi Haifa?) was playing his team (Hapoel Jerusalem?) - so my guys there took me to the local basketball arena (about the size of the high-school arena my kids went to, although, to be fair, it's a big high-school) and I got to see him playing. That was quite amusing. As you can imagine, he was a shell of his former self at this point, was playing Center and was really not moving too well, but still cool to see it.

 

Kyrie is a certified nut. I remember back when he and Dame were younger, there was so much debate about who was better. I think the argument is over. Not only do I think Dame was/is a better player, but hands down a better person and a better leader. It's not even close. It's a shame because Kyrie has always been a gifted player, but he's just a shitty human being.

 

No we just always need to be smart. Kyrie refused to make the apology the night before he made it and had been suspended indefinitely because of what he apologized for hours before he made it. It's not cynical to say that this was obviously disingenuous and coerced, it's almost a reality that has to be accepted. You know who else was also smart, Nate Jones' business partner because the Jewish community has no interest in keeping this thing going. So the smart move on there part is to recognize the disingenuous tweet as genuine so Kyrie followers can't justify their antisemitism by pointing to him.

So you don't have to be cynical to look at the timeline and realize that Kyrie only made his statement because he got suspended. You can also publicly use his statement to denounce antisemitism because the statement does that for the most part.

 

this is really overthinking it.

no shit kyrie was forced to make this statement. ultimately, it really doesn't matter if it's genuine or not as long as his followers see the apology and the harm he caused. it kinda/sorta undoes the damage he did in the first place.

 

The timing being an hour or two after the Nets announced his indefinite suspension and not 24 hours after he again refused to apologize makes the apology by definition PR. I will say that you should read it if you have a minute because it is something that the Jewish community can point to if antisemites want to point to Kyrie as someone who agrees with them and at the same time something the black community can point to in order to distance themselves from antisemitism. It is important that the tweet was put out there but I don't credit Kyrie with it at all. The only thing that guy ever seems to do is tear things down... MF is toxic.

 

Man.... if I was a celebrity in any way, I would stay the fuck off social media. Hell, I'm NOT a celebrity and I never post anything at all on facebook or twitter.

I only post my insane ramblings on here.

 

Which I just said. I'm definitely not overthinking it... you're right that it doesn't matter as far as the positive way the tweet can affect people outside of Kyrie but it definitely does matter when trying to decipher Kyrie's character and where he really stands on this issue. The tweet was great because it can be pointed to by level headed people within two communities that have been allies against bigotry for almost a century, to strengthen their camaraderie. The tweet was only shitty because some may use it to try and let Kyrie off the hook for what he did and refused to apologize for it until given an ultimatum. It's far greater than it is shitty because Kyrie is just one person and his previous tweet and comments hurt far more people than them and this tweet goes a long way to remedying that damage.

 

As someone who doesn't particularly like Kyrie, I think his apology was forced and disingenuous.

If I was someone who supported Kyrie, I'd think his apology was forced/extorted out of him, and I'd probably double down on my beliefs.

 

It's just that leaders in the black and Jewish communities can still point to that quote in the future to discredit anyone who espouses their beliefs to following Kyrie. It's also important to remember that context has a much shorter lifespan than something put into print.

You only have to go as far as black people quoting Hitler that they are the true Hebrews when Hitler exterminated black people in his country along with other people of color and Jewish people during his reign. The quote fit a narrative trying to be pushed and the context didn't matter.

 

"Unless you're my wife or son.... in which case fuck you."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/john-lennons-dark-side-domestic-6481985

 

This. Dude was a garbage person.

 

lol, some Good Friday humor. Thanks

 

Call me cynical but I would’ve much rather heard this from Kyrie’s mouth rather than a written (most likely not by him) statement. It’s a well written apology tho