Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving has been caught up in many scandals over his NBA career. Usually, when he says something stupid, it only takes the world a few weeks to forget about it before the focus shifts back to his amazing basketball abilities.
This time, though, that’s clearly not the case. After posting antisemitic material on his social media, Irving found himself in the dog house, with the Nets going so far as to suspend Irving before giving him a list of conditions necessary for his return.
Of course, Irving also received some blowback in other ways. His partnership with Nike, for example, is officially over after the company co-founder, Phil Knight, made the following statement:
Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, recently talked on CNBC about this Kyrie situation, revealing that his activity on social media, the refusal to apologize until after he was suspended, and everything in between granted Irving’s exit from the company.
“Kyrie stepped over the line,” Knight said. “It’s kind of that simple, so he made some statements that we just can’t abide by and that’s why we ended the relationship. And yeah, I was fine with that.”
Jaylen Brown Sticks Up For Irving, Calls Out Nike In Heated Response On Twitter
While Irving is facing some major consequences for his actions, he does still have a number of supports in his corner. One of them is Jaylen Brown, who followed up a statement this week with an intense tweet directed at Nike HQ.
Since when did Nike care about ethics? https://t.co/f8t2eY994v
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) November 10, 2022
“I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic,” said Brown on Irving. “I don’t think people in our governing bodies think he’s antisemitic. He made a mistake. We understand from an outside perspective how important sensitivity is to not condone hate speech and not condone anything of that nature. It’s sensitivity to the dialect around that. We don’t want to stand up for somebody in order to not condemn hate speech, but I don’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic. And hopefully the NBA feels the same way.”
Of course, Nike isn’t exactly a company with nothing to hide. They are just as greedy as any other corporation out there and often employ tactics that can be more than questionable morally.
In the end, however, they were unwilling to stick with Irving through his latest controversy, which continues to threaten his NBA future.
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