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Kyrie Irving has had one of the more interesting careers that an NBA player has had ever since he entered the NBA as the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. As Irving prepares to help the Dallas Mavericks try to win Game 2 of the NBA Finals at the Boston Celtics, there is more light shed on arguably the most controversial moment during his time with the Brooklyn Nets.
“I think in our private conversations, which at the time included (former NBPA executive director) Tamika Tremaglio … he was very remorseful,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Friday of Irving while speaking at an NBA Cares event, per Sam Amick of The Athletic. On Oct. 27, 2022, Irving posted a tweet with a link to a documentary titled “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.”
The tweet essentially enveloped Irving and the Nets into another controversy after everything the team had been through up to that point as the documentary was described as a movie “stuffed with antisemitic tropes,” according to Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone.
The tweet was denounced by plenty of people around the NBA and Irving eventually made a statement, in concert with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), that he “meant no harm” towards the Jewish community and pledged a $500,000 donation towards causes that focused on eradicating hate in communities.
“He took responsibility,” Silver explained. “I think we all know he can be a bit stubborn, and I think he felt strongly that he needed to speak in his own words in terms of how he expressed himself in terms of an apology to the public.”
Despite all of the backlash that Irving received at the time, Silver, who is Jewish, was one of the people that believed that Irving was not anti-semitic despite sharing a link of the movie. It seems that Silver viewed it as an honest mistake by Irving, someone who has proven to be an outside-of-the-box thinker that has led him astray at times.
“But, there was no doubt for me — and I wouldn’t have said what I did at the time if I didn’t feel that he was absolutely remorseful and was committed to doing the right thing going forward, and also to being empathetic to how others might have perceived his comments,” Silver said.