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The Dispiriting Saga of Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets

Kyrie Irving last spoke to the press a week ago. He was wearing a black baseball cap, which had the words “Journey” and “Reward” stitched on the front; “Reward” was written upside down. The week before, on October 28th, Rolling Stone had published an article describing the contents of a movie, “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” that Irving had posted a link to on Twitter. The rough thesis of the movie is that Black people are the real Israelites, the true chosen people of God, and that Jews have been lying—about their origins, the Holocaust, and the true extent of their influence. At a postgame press conference a day after the article came out, reporters repeatedly asked Irving about the film and about his beliefs, but, rather than disavowing the movie or anti-Semitism, Irving deflected, painting himself as the victim. “Don’t dehumanize me up here,” he told ESPN’s Nick Friedell.

For the next several days, the Nets did not make Irving available to the press, because, the team’s general manager, Sean Marks, said, they didn’t want to “cause more fuss right now.” But, on November 2nd, the team, Irving, and the Anti-Defamation League put out a statement, in which Irving accepted “responsibility” for his tweet’s “negative impact” on the Jewish community, and he and the Nets organization each pledged five hundred thousand dollars to “causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance in our communities,” including the A.D.L. The statement noted that Irving didn’t believe that everything in the documentary was true, but it did not go into detail about his views. The Nets had, in essence, written a script for Irving, the same one that so many athletes had followed before him: apologize, listen, donate, educate. All Irving had to do was follow it. The Nets’ hope—their obvious, desperate hope—was that if he just said, “No, I don’t believe Jews are to blame for anti-Black racism,” or “No, I don’t believe Jews are part of a Satanic cult,” or maybe even simply, “I’m sorry,” then the world could pretend that everything was all right, and the team could get back to the ordinary business of playing basketball.

And so, on November 3rd, Irving was asked again about what he had posted. Was he surprised that promoting the film had hurt people? He answered by describing his own pain: the pain of being a Black child in America and learning the truth of slavery, the pain of being a Black man in America and facing racism and oppression. He talked about the power of his self-education. Asked twice if he held anti-Semitic views, he answered, both times, “I cannot be anti-Semitic, if I know where I come from”—an answer that could plausibly be interpreted as an endorsement of the movie’s thesis. “Any label you put on me I’m able to dismiss, because I study,” he said. “I know the Oxford Dictionary.” He added, “I’m just here to continue to expose things that our world continues to put in darkness,” and he called himself “a light, a beacon of light.”

Shortly after these remarks, the Nets announced that they had suspended Irving for at least five games, without pay, for his “failure to disavow antisemitism.” Irving was “currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets,” the team said. Shams Charania, of the Athletic, later reported that Irving needed to complete six steps, including sensitivity and anti-Semitism training, before rejoining the team. (The basketball journalist Marc Stein reported, in his Substack newsletter, that the steps may have been set up with the expectation that Irving would not complete them, and then would be released.) The Nets had at last taken the high road, after every other road was blocked.

Joe Tsai, the owner of the Nets, had seemed to do everything he could to avoid suspending Irving. Shortly after the Rolling Stone article ran, Tsai tweeted that he was “disappointed” in Irving’s decision to amplify the film, and hoped to “sit down” with Irving to help him understand why it was so hurtful. Marks, the general manager, also spoke about the importance of meeting with and listening to the A.D.L. It might have been a laudable approach—for all the hand-wringing about the lack of consequences that athletes face, punishments can be beside the point. But it was hard to take the Nets’ efforts to educate Irving seriously, given that the team had been enabling him for years. Irving reportedly ignored Tsai’s texts; it soon became clear that a representative for Irving, and not Irving himself, had agreed to the joint statement with the Nets and the A.D.L. Only after the suspension was announced did Irving apologize , on Instagram.

Irving’s penchant for conspiracy theories has been familiar to N.B.A. fans since at least February, 2017, when, on a podcast, he declared that the Earth is flat. (“I do research on both sides,” he told the Times , the following year.) Tony Kornheiser, of ESPN, later called out Irving and other N.B.A. players for endorsing such conspiracies. “It’s a very small step to becoming a Holocaust denier or a slavery denier,” Kornheiser said. The Nets signed Irving, in 2019, agreeing to pay him $136,490,600 across four years. Why they did it was immediately obvious—he scored fifty points in his team début—but the risks involved were quickly apparent, too, as was the team’s leniency. During the pandemic, Irving took time away from the court for mental-health reasons, and then was videotaped maskless at an indoor party, breaking COVID -safety protocols. He refused to get vaccinated against COVID -19, which, at the start of the 2021-22 season, made him ineligible to play Brooklyn home games, owing to New York City’s vaccination requirements. The Nets announced that Irving would not join them for away games, either—the team was not interested in having part-time members, the Nets said. Then, after several of Irving’s teammates were ruled ineligible to play due to injuries and COVID -19 protocols, the organization backtracked, and allowed Irving to compete on the road.

In the playoffs that season, the Nets were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round. Afterward, Irving said that he and Kevin Durant , the Nets superstar, were “managing this franchise together alongside” Tsai and Marks. That raised some eyebrows, but given the events of the previous two years it was hard to argue with him. (Among other maneuvers, the team had signed DeAndre Jordan, a friend of Irving’s and Durant’s, to a four-year, forty-million-dollar contract, even though his best days were behind him and the Nets had better, younger players at his position.) During the summer, the team declined to give Irving the long and lucrative contract extension that he reportedly sought. But it was clear that the team was in a win-now mode, and that it needed Irving, or at least thought it did.

The Nets had other issues to contend with. They were planning the exit of the team’s coach, Steve Nash, and announced it in the midst of the Irving controversy. Shams Charania soon reported that the Nets were planning to replace him with Ime Udoka, who is currently serving a yearlong suspension as head coach of the Boston Celtics, for breaking workplace rules; his misdeeds apparently included speaking disrespectfully to a female staffer. When asked what the team was looking for in a new coach, Marks answered, “Poise, charisma, accountability.” On Sunday, Marc Stein reported that “strong voices” were urging the Nets to reconsider the decision to hire Udoka. On Wednesday, the team announced that it had given Jacque Vaughn, a Nets assistant coach who was serving as interim head coach, the job.

Kevin Durant evidently learned about Nash’s firing from the television. He was taking a nap, he later said, with his TV tuned to ESPN, and saw the news when he woke up. He was “shocked,” he told reporters, later that night. This was somewhat hard to believe, given that Nash’s departure had seemed inevitable for days, if not weeks or even months—and that Durant himself had reportedly told Tsai, during the summer, that if Nash and Marks weren’t fired, then the Nets would have to trade him. A few weeks later, Durant backed down from the demand, but it was hard to imagine that such a public breach of faith could be repaired. After all, Nash had supposedly been hired with Durant’s support.

The Nets had a game that night, against the Chicago Bulls, on national television. Durant was, as ever, sublime: swishing turnaround jumpers, his long legs gliding across the floor. Sometimes even now, knowing all he has done and can do, seeing his gravitational control is startling. Late in the third quarter, all five Bulls converged upon him as he drove into the paint—only to swing the ball down low and hand it off to his teammate Edmond Sumner as his body flew past the basket. Sumner missed the layup, but Yuta Watanabe was there with the putback—a rare moment, this season, of the team working in concert. Durant scored thirty-two points in thirty-eight minutes, with nine rebounds and six assists. The Nets lost, but that wasn’t Durant’s fault. None of the team’s problems seem to be. And yet almost everything that the team has done lately, it has done for him, or with his apparent blessing.

“I ain’t here to judge nobody or talk down on nobody for how they feel, their view or anything,” Durant said, after a shootaround on Friday, following Irving’s suspension. “I just didn’t like anything that went on. I feel like it was all unnecessary. I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don’t like none of it.” Later, he took to Twitter to clarify that he did not condone hate speech or anti-Semitism.

This week, Irving met with Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, who put out a stronger statement criticizing Irving’s decision to tweet the film after an initial vague one from the N.B.A. condemning hate speech. Irving’s fellow-players have been even more circumspect. Jaylen Brown, a vice-president of the National Basketball Players’ Association, told the Boston Globe that the union is uncomfortable with the conditions the Nets have outlined for Irving’s reinstatement, given that the league and the players’ association have no agreement on how to handle social-media posts, particularly when a link to something is shared without commentary. “I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is anti-Semitic,” Brown said. “I don’t think people in our governing bodies think he’s anti-Semitic. He made a mistake.” None of Irving’s teammates have spoken out against Irving or the film. LeBron James was one of the few to say anything negative; a week after the initial tweet, he said that Irving had “caused some harm to a lot of people.” Then, on Thursday afternoon, he tweeted , “Kyrie apologized and he should be able to play.”

Perhaps the players felt that anti-Semitism was not their issue. (Only one current N.B.A. player, Deni Avdija, from Israel, is known to be Jewish. “Hopefully he’s sorry for what he said,” Avdija told reporters, of Irving.) Perhaps Irving, who is also a vice-president of the players’ association, is too well liked within the league. Perhaps the players, like many others, have become exhausted by the depressing drumbeat of scandal. During the off-season, the free-agent forward Miles Bridges was arrested on domestic-violence and child-abuse charges. (Last week, he pleaded no contest to the former, and the latter were dismissed.) Then a law firm that had investigated the toxic workplace culture of the Phoenix Suns under the ownership of Robert Sarver published a damning report . Ten days later, the Celtics handed Ime Udoka his season-long suspension. At the end of October, the San Antonio Spurs cut a recent top draft pick, Josh Primo, following allegations that he exposed himself on repeated occasions, including to a team employee who is now suing both Primo and the Spurs.

The mood in the N.B.A., and not only in the N.B.A., is grim. Many people seem to be looking for answers in dark places, and they don’t need to look far—they can find them on YouTube and on signs hung from Los Angeles freeways, in the campaign speeches of gubernatorial candidates, and with the guidance of Amazon’s recommendation algorithm. Irving shrugged off responsibility for the message of the documentary, saying that he didn’t make it; Jeff Bezos didn’t make it either, but Amazon took people’s money for it—$11.99 for rental, $49.99 for purchase. By Friday, it was the top-ranked documentary on Amazon, and the book on which it was based was the top seller in the Christian-education category.

When the Nets faced the Indiana Pacers on Halloween, prior to Irving’s suspension, a group of young people sat courtside wearing T-shirts bearing the words “ FIGHT ANTISEMITISM .” The shirts harked back to those worn by N.B.A. players in 2014, after the police killing of Eric Garner, and to the jerseys they wore in 2020—during nationwide protests for racial justice following the murder of George Floyd , by a Minneapolis police officer—which bore slogans calling for justice and equality. Floyd’s murder galvanized a movement, one that the N.B.A. embraced . But solidarity has been hard to find during the past week, in the N.B.A. and beyond. ♦

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Could the Nets have swapped Kyrie Irving for Mavericks' Jalen Brunson?

The Brooklyn Nets are in the middle of their latest rebuild as they are looking to find their next superstar or two in the upcoming NBA Drafts. The hope is that Brooklyn can find a player that they can develop in-house, but there is one player that could have been with the franchise if certain events went differently.

ESPN's Tim MacMahon recently went on the "Knicks Film School Podcast" with Jonathan Macri to discuss various topics related to the New York Knicks after everything that has happened this summer. One of the talking points that came up was whether the Nets could have gotten Knicks star Jalen Brunson in a trade for Kyrie Irving during the 2022-23 season with the Dallas Mavericks.

"The funny thing is, if Brunson signs that extension with Dallas, I think there is a high likelihood that he would be with the Brooklyn Nets right now," MacMahon said. MacMahon is giving his opinion here, but it is interesting to hear these comments from him given that the Mavericks are part of his coverage for ESPN so it's possible that there could be some chatter behind what he's saying.

"Mark Cuban has always been about chasing stars," MacMahon explained. But, I think there's a decent chance that Jalen Brunson would have been moved to Brooklyn with Kyrie Irving still ending up in Dallas." During the 2022-23 campaign, the Nets traded Irving to the Mavericks after the two sides were unable to come to terms on a contract extension and Brooklyn received Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith along with draft picks.

To add to this revisited moment, the Mavericks had the chance to offer Brunson a four-year, $55 million deal prior to when he broke out with the Mavericks during the 2021-22 season. As Brunson explained on the "All The Smoke" podcast with former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, Dallas wanted to wait to give Brunson the extension and after that, it seemed that Brunson wanted to go elsewhere which is how he ended up signing with New York in free-agency the following summer.

Tim MacMahon goes on to say: "Mark Cuban has always been about chasing stars... but I think there's a decent chance that Jalen Brunson would have been moved to Brooklyn with Kyrie Irving still ending up in Dallas... Brunson obviously landed in a much better situation." https://t.co/qMYYHdbXEw — Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) August 16, 2024

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This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Could the Nets have swapped Kyrie Irving for Mavericks' Jalen Brunson?

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Trip to NBA Finals represent redemption for Kyrie Irving

The last time Irving played in the NBA Finals was 2017 when his Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Golden State Warriors in five games. Since then, Irving spent two seasons with the Boston Celtics and three-and-a-half seasons with the Brooklyn Nets before the Mavs secured his services in a trade on Feb. 6, 2023.

And because the Mavs were able to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-103, at Target Center, and win the Western Conference Finals, 4-1 Irving can now exhale again after reaching the NBA Finals for the fourth time in his career.

“It has been seven long years, but it’s also felt like the right amount of time in order to reward myself to be in the locker room with my teammates and enjoying it,” Irving said. “We are going to enjoy this, but we obviously know this is a pit stop in the journey and we got to get ready for that court turning gold, as I like to say.

“The shoes turn gold and the jerseys turn gold. As a kid that’s what you dream of is to get into the Finals and be able to play against the best of the best with the whole world watching.”

“I think when you look at Kai’s leadership and his ability, he’s a winner and he wants to win,” coach Jason Kidd said. “He does all the things to do that.

“I think for Kai to be able to play off of Luka (Dončić) and vice-versa (was important). But there in the first half, Luka sent the message to Kai, and Kai got the message and took it in the second half.”

It was a gratifying moment for Irving, who, when he joined the Mavs some 15 months ago, the critics lined up 100 deep on their various podcasts and TV and radio talk shows in saying his union with Dončić would never work. Needless to say, the Dončić -Irving union has unequivocally worked.

Why did it work?

“I would say it’s the patience when it comes to being around each other,” center Daniel Gafford said. “When the trade when Kyrie got here, they said Luka is not going to work well with him.

“They’re working pretty good right now, if I do say so myself. Whoever said that, they obviously need to go get their eyes checked.”

And when the Timberwolves made a mild threat in the fourth quarter, Irving drained a three-pointer to put the Mavs up, 108-80. Then he drilled another three-pointer to give the Mavs a comfortable 113-88 lead with 6:08 remaining in the game.

“I always tell you guys, it’s been great to have (Irving),” Dončić said. “He’s helped me mature, he’s helped me see the basketball game in a little bit different way.”

The Mavs were not favored in any of their playoff series this season against the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder or against the Timberwolves. But they eliminated the Clippers in six games, dispatched the Thunder in six games, and sent the Timberwolves packing in five games.

Irving played a major role in the various steps the Mavs made from being a non-playoff team last season to now meeting the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, which starts on June 6 in Boston.

“We had to go against some great opponents — OKC, the Clippers, the Wolves,” said Irving, who won an NBA title with Cleveland in 2016. “And I feel like got us better as a team.

Irving was coming off a miserable Game 4 where he scored just 16 points on 6-of-18 shooting while committing four turnovers as Minnesota avoided a series sweep with a 105-100 victory in Dallas this past Tuesday. But Irving made amends in Game 5 when he was 14-of-27 from the field – including 4-of-10 from downtown – and added five assists and no turnovers in 40 business-like minutes.

“I thought just being able to use his speed and get to the rim, and then he was playing off of Luka and he got a lot of great looks  – wide open looks,” Kidd said. “But then also being able to pull up going full speed.

“His ability to stop on a dime and shoot the (mid-range jump shot) was at a high rate.”

Or, as Gafford said: “Kyrie, he leads the team with positive vibes. (It’s) 24/7 from him no matter what goes on throughout the game.”

And what went on Thursday from Irving was redemption in its biggest form. Now, he’s back on the NBA’s biggest stage, preparing to add another chapter to his brilliant career, and very hopeful of nabbing another championship ring.

“I definitely don’t take this moment for granted because of how hard we had to work to get here,” Irving said. “We had to earn our spot into the NBA Finals.”

With 2:24 remaining in the first half of Thursday’s Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Naz Reid was assessed a Flagrant Foul Penalty-1 for popping Lively in the head as the Dallas Mavericks’ backup center was attempting a field goal.

Lively laid on the floor for about a minute as his teammates held their breath. But that wasn’t as long as he laid on the court this past Sunday for approximately five minutes in Game 3 of this series after he was inadvertently kneed in the back of his head after he collided with the right knee of forward Karl-Anthony Towns.

Lively was diagnosed with a neck sprain, forcing him to miss Game 4. But fortunately, he was not injured during Thursday’s unfortunate mishap.

“I got clocked in the head again,” Lively said. “I feel like no matter what’s going on, no matter how hard of an injury is going on, I just think back to what my mama was going through, how much pain she was going through.

“Me getting clocked in the head, me getting kneed in the head ain’t got (anything) on what she was going through. So that means I can’t sit on the ground, I can’t act like I’m hurt. I got to keep going. No matter how much pain I’m going through, it ain’t (anything) compared to her.”

BRIEFLY: Between Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, they split 72 points right down the middle on Thursday. Dončić finished with 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals, and Irving collected 36 points, four rebounds and five assists. “When you have two scorers like that and two willing passers, they got wide open looks tonight,” coach Jason Kidd said. “The ball was moving, we took care of the ball and we made shots and we put a lot of pressure on Minnesota’s offense.”  Center Daniel Gafford, who joined the Mavs via a trade with the Washington Wizards on Feb. 8, tried to explain what it’s like to see two dynamic scorers like Dončić and Irving feed off one another. “For us just watching it, it’s just greatness,” Gafford said. “One player (Irving) has been in this situation before. The other one (Dončić ) is trying to, for sure, be in this situation consistently.”. .Celebrities in attendance for Game 5 include actress/singer/TV talk show host Jennifer Hudson, rapper Common, music producer Jimmy Jam and singer Snoop Dogg.

X: @DwainPrice

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Remember Kyrie Irving’s buzzer beater celly? This artist painted it on a basketball court

The court in san fernando, philippines was painted by artist maya carandang and shows irving celebrating after hitting a game-winning buzzer beater against the denver nuggets..

By SportsDay Staff

10:54 PM on Aug 6, 2024 CDT

Like the shot that spawned its inspiration, this mural in the Philippines is fire.

Artist Maya Carandang painted a basketball court in San Fernando, La Union with a colorful portrait of Kyrie Irving celebrating his game-winning buzzer beater over the Denver Nuggets in March. With the score all tied up at 105, Irving hit a lefty, one-handed floater then looked at his hand as if it was on fire.

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The scenic court overlooks the ocean and is the first of 100 the Filipino artist plans to paint. Carandang specializes in stylized basketball art and has previously depicted icons of the sport like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

Now, his art might get one of the NBA’s most famous athletes to visit from across the globe. Carandang wrote in an Instagram post, “Uncle Drew, come visit Philippines,” and Irving found the post and replied.

“All I needed was an invite. Next year for sure. Thank you for the LOVE. This is Legendary,” he said.

Need a refresher on Irving’s shot? Watch the video below. We think Carandang did a pretty good job.

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here .

SportsDay Staff

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Product Key Features

• Style Baseball Cap
• Features Adjustable
• Theme Sports

Nike Kyrie Irving Sneakers for Men

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