LOS ANGELES — In a fraught week for the NBA, there has been a certain deafening silence: Very few players have weighed in publicly on the controversy consuming Kyrie Irving.
Since Irving shared the Amazon link to a film with antisemitic content last week, the NBA has struggled to handle it. After several media sessions where Irving refused to apologize and even indicated that he agreed with aspects of the film, the Brooklyn Nets finally suspended the All-Star guard without pay for a minimum of five games and outlined conditions for him to rejoin the team.
On Friday night, LeBron James was one of the first player voices to actually condemn Irving’s actions.
“I believe what Kyrie did caused some harm to a lot of people,” James said after the Lakers’ 130-116 loss to the Utah Jazz. “And he has since, over the last – I think it was today, or yesterday – he apologized. But he caused some harm and I think it’s unfortunate. … If you are promoting or soliciting or saying harmful things to any community that harms people, then I don’t respect it. I don’t condone it.”
James is the biggest voice in the NBA with one of the largest platforms for any athlete in the world, and he knows well the power of speaking out – as well as the criticism that can come from making mistakes.
He had a recent brush with antisemitism when his business partner, Maverick Carter, filmed an episode of his YouTube show “The Shop” with the artist formerly known as Kanye West (legally “Ye”). The episode was eventually scrapped before it aired because Ye allegedly used hate speech – the rapper has since lost several major corporate relationships and faced a flood of pushback for sharing antisemitic statements and sentiments.
“Me personally, I don’t condone any hate to any kind to any race,” James said. “To Jewish communities, to Black communities, to Asian communities. You guys know where I stand. And that’s part of the reason why I didn’t air ‘The Shop’ episode, why we kicked that out of the archives. Because it was hate conversation going on there. And I don’t represent that. There’s no place in this world for it.”
The most public voices so far have featured missteps. Irving’s teammate, Kevin Durant, said on Friday morning that he didn’t appreciate how the Nets handled Irving’s situation.
“I just didn’t like anything that went on,” Durant said. “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.”
Durant later tweeted a clarification that he did not condone hate speech or antisemitism. Very few (if any) players before James had said anything condemning Irving’s behavior from their own lips.
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James was asked why NBA players – a typically socially conscious group – had been generally quiet about the issue.
“I can’t speak for 450 players,” James said before offering his personal views.
James played with Irving in Cleveland, winning the NBA championship together in 2016 before Irving eventually frayed with his teammates and the franchise and requested a trade the following year. He’s since played for Boston and Brooklyn, leaving off-court controversies in his wake. He wasn’t permitted to play at the start of last season when he refused to be vaccinated against COVID in accordance with New York City regulations.
The latest scandal, however, is one that threatens to derail his career – especially given the length of time it took to issue any kind of apology, which he finally did after his suspension. Irving’s relationship with Nike was also suspended this week, and his latest shoe, the Kyrie 8, will not be released, the sports apparel giant announced on Friday.
James said he still feels compassion for Irving, but he doesn’t know what Irving can do to repair the damage he’s done.
“I love the kid – he’s not even a kid no more. He’s 30,” James said. “I don’t know the direction, the steps that he takes, but he’s apologized for what he said and I hope that he understands that what he said was harmful to a lot of people.”