It is increasingly difficult to find extenuating circumstances to Kyrie Irving. We tried hard, as the divine talent of the Nets leader and some of the fights he fought off the field during his career are admirable. But after a while, when a player with a voice and notoriety as big as his refuses to admit that what he’s doing is problematic, you have to give up hope of seeing him change.
Perhaps journalists like ESPN’s Nick Friedell, with whom Kyrie had a lively and slightly awkward exchange with Saturday, should give up asking him questions that don’t concern the field. Nothing good will come of it. The boy has been in a bubble of spirituality and impermeable conspiracy for years already and he will not leave it.
Friedell, therefore, tried to relaunch the leader of Brooklyn on a controversy that he had hitherto eluded, since it had taken place during the offseason. FYI, it was before owner Joe Tsai was called to order this week when he learned that Kyrie had shared the link to the movie ‘Hebrews to Negroes’, which features anti-Semitic theories disguised as a documentary (if you doubt it, go read this).
Kyrie Irving offers a new controversy with an XXL crop of the Nets
A few weeks ago, the former Cleveland and Boston player posted a video of Alex Jones, the boss of the fascist and conspiratorial media Infowars. He claimed that an organization called “New World Order” ruled the planet and released diseases and viruses on the world to control it. Kyrie knows full well who Alex Jones is, recently ordered to pay $1 billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, whom he harassed and defamed for years by claiming that this tragedy which occurred in a school in 2012 was a set up and that the victims were actors.
Friedell therefore asked him why he had promoted an opinion of Alex Jones. Response from Kyrie:
“I do not support Alex Jones in this Sandy Hook case, or what he did to people and children who had to relive this trauma. The post I shared is from the 90s. It talks about secret societies in the United States there are cults that rule. And all that is true, it exists. So I was not campaigning for Alex Jones or what he thinks.
What’s funny is that of all the things I’ve been able to post, this is the one people chose to see, because it’s about how our world works.”
Friedell then followed up on his reasons for “promoting” a movie like the aforementioned or a video like Jones’. Kyrie didn’t like it.
“Can you stop saying I’m promoting this? That’s not it. I’m just putting this online. Don’t dehumanize me. I can post whatever I want. I don’t have to understand anything coming from you. I’m not answering the question? Oh, Kyrie is not answering the question, let’s put him in a clip on Instagram to be known again!”
Haven’t seen something like this in years oh my pic.twitter.com/2earuBxH2Q
— ⁶ (@OVOLakeShow) October 30, 2022
Kyrie is a walking paradox
We can think that the journalist should have let go and respected the will of Kyrie Irving to move on. We can also say that Amazon is even more irresponsible to leave a film like this in its catalog. But all this does not take away Kyrie’s share of the responsibility. In nothing.
In everything he said during this appearance in front of the press and in recent months, he was so paradoxical that it is legitimate to ask him about it.
We imagine, fortunately, that Kyrie does not believe EVERYTHING said by a guy like Alex Jones, who relays all the most eccentric and sordid conspiracies that are. We also hope that he is not on the same level of brain roasting as Kanye West in terms of anti-Semitism. But if he is convinced that Jews control the world, that Covid was created to decimate the African-American population, or that the Earth is rectangular, why not “do his own research” (a term he loves to use ) to find people who are a little less obnoxious to put forward? Spoiler: it will be complicated.
And why pretend not to understand that when you are followed on the networks by millions of people who admire you, everything you post, relay, say or do has a gigantic impact?
Two minutes apart, Kyrie Irving says he’s “in a unique position in terms of influence on his community”then that it is the media that invent an influence for him. “I am no different from other humans. You are there to lend me an influence that I do not have”, he said. Before, a few moments later, proclaiming that with his followers, he “a whole army around him”. You should know.
Richard Jefferson summed it up perfectly as he was aptly commenting on the Nets game:
“It’s disappointing. Kyrie says he’s not anti-Semitic and all that. I talked to him about it, I believe him. But the tweet is still there. Why? And he posted a video of Alex Jones, who tortured entire families over that Sandy Hook tragedy.
He must understand how to use networks and how things can affect people. If he is not sensitive to that, then he condones. When you say to your followers, look at what this individual has just said, you have to be ready to answer people’s questions.
The season is still long, but the climate around Kyrie Irving and the Nets is already harmful. The sporty and the extra-sporty impact each other these days and we cannot pretend to ignore it. Kyrie may have another 35 points against Indiana last night, but the Nets are 1-5 and the negative light that’s been cast on him isn’t helping a team that already has a bunch of other issues to deal with.
Kyrie Irving is scuttling himself again, it’s bad for him and the Nets