Following his endorsement of an anti-Semitic documentary, Nike Inc. terminated its association with Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving on Friday and postponed the launch of its next pair of Irving-branded shoes. Irving was already serving a minimum five-game suspension from the Nets after he twice wavered in his apologies for the documentary. Later on Thursday night, Irving apologised more fully for sponsoring a film that he said included “false anti-Semitic comments.”
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism. To that end, we’ve made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8,” Nike said in a statement.
“We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone,” the statement said.
Additionally, the Nets will not pay him while he is on suspension. According to Basketball-Reference.com, he has a $36.9 million deal this season after making approximately $195 million over the course of his previous 11 seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets.
He would be punished for a minimum of five games and until he takes a number of undefined “remedial steps”, according to the Nets.
Since sharing a link to a 2018 remark on Twitter last week and defending the article over the weekend, Irving has come in for harsh criticism. The tweet from the seven-time All-Star was later removed.
He apologised to those “hurt from the hateful sentiments stated in the documentary” in a post on Instagram on Thursday and claimed full responsibility for his choice to share the material with his followers.
Irving said the film “contained some false anti-Semitic statements, narratives, and language that were untrue and offensive to the Jewish Race/Religion.”
“I want to clarify any confusion on where I stand fighting against anti-Semitism by apologizing for posting the documentary without context and a factual explanation outlining the specific beliefs in the documentary I agreed with and disagreed with,” Irving wrote.
The controversy arises at a delicate time for Jews in the US. The New York City borough of Brooklyn, which has one of the densest Jewish communities in the world, is directly over the bay from New Jersey, where the FBI issued a credible threat warning on Thursday.
(With inputs from agencies)
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