By Alyssa Villasenor, Staff Writer | December 14, 2022
Photo courtesy of Associated Press Images
Kyrie Irving is going on his 9th season with the NBA. He is a famous 6’2 pro-American
basketball player who has been playing on the Brooklyn Nets since 2019.
Currently, he plays point guard and is ranked among the best in the league. Irving was
the first overall pick for the 2011 NBA draft with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In 2016, he
won an NBA championship as a seven-time All-Star and three-time member of the All-
NBA team.
This talented player recently converted to Islam a couple of years ago, which reports
state is the most popular religion followed by members in the NBA.
Recently, Irving was suspended by his team on November 3, 2022 after he posted a link
containing antisemitic comments and subsequently refused to issue an apology. He
also refused to state that he had no antisemitic beliefs in a published interview a few
hours after posting the link. The Brooklyn Nets then decided to suspend him for at least
five games.
To date, he has issued many apologies and has publicly stated that he doesn’t stand for
“anything close to hate speech or antisemitism.”
Academy of Education Empowerment freshman Hateni Mesake, who is a fan of Irving,
stated, “I don’t think he [Kyrie Irving] should’ve been suspended because he probably
didn’t think it was going to escalate that far. Many celebrities say things they regret.”
Irving has a huge following on social media with at least 4.5 million followers on Twitter
and 17 million on Instagram. This means that many people worldwide are aware of his
recent post. This controversy has left many people upset and even had some NBA fans
wear “Fight Antisemitism” t-shirts. In addition, Nike, a well-known American
multinational corporation, has officially dropped Irving.
Carson High School junior Leland Connor said, “His [Kyrie Irving] punishment [five
game suspension] was a reasonable as it was offensive. He is also a role model to
some people and talking badly about others is not setting a good example.”
The famous basketball star’s tweet led to roughly a five-game suspension and being
dropped from a major sponsor. There were a couple mixed feelings about this situation.
Some thought that his punishment was reasonable while others thought he shouldn’t
have been punished at all. Irving has issued many apologies via social media, as of
November 20, 2022, Irving has returned back to playing with his team.
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