The Brooklyn Nets fans showed their displeasure to Kyrie Irving by wearing “Fight Anti-Semitism” shirts following Irving’s promotion of an anti-Semitic film.
Kyrie Irving has been in the headlines of late, albeit all for the wrong reasons. The Brooklyn Nets superstar has been under a lot of criticism for his support of an anti-Semitic film on social media, as both fans as well as the Nets owner Joe Tsai called him out for promoting hatred based on race, ethnicity or religion. However, Irving did not quite back down from his stance.
Irving made all the headlines last week when he promoted a movie called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America”, a film based on a book of the same name that promotes anti-Semitic sentiments. Irving’s tweet redirected his fans to the link of the film on Amazon, but fans were not happy when they found out that the film promotes non-tolerant anti-Semitic sentiments.
Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai followed up with a statement as he condemned Irving’s actions, saying “I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-Semitic disinformation.” Tsai added: “I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
Apart from Tsai and the NBA both condemning his actions, Kyrie also faced displeasure from the Brooklyn Nets supporters for his tweet.
His boss’ thoughts did not affect Kyrie as he did not provide an apology and defended his beliefs. After the Nets’ loss to the Pacers last week, Kyrie released a statement saying: “I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs. The ‘Anti-Semitic’that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday.”
Kyrie added that he “embraces and wants to learn from all walks of life and religion”, but his statements were not taken too lightly by the Nets supporters who rallied with “Fight Anti-Semitism” t-shirts on the sidelines as the Nets defeated the Pacers 116-109 on Monday night.
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