The Kyrie Irving controversy continues to find a spot in the news, and CJ McCollum joined the list of names, sharing his thoughts on the anti-Semitism fiasco that landed the Brooklyn Nets guard in trouble.
Irving was suspended soon after his retweet promoting an anti-Semitic film went viral. It started with Nets owner Joe Tsai taking to Twitter to express his disappointment. Eventually, it ended with the franchise issuing a strong statement, a suspension, and the six things he needed to do to start his reintegration.
New Orleans Pelicans’ McCollum minced no words when he strongly condemned anti-Semitism and also outlined that it was vital that Irving issued an apology. According to ESPN:
“I think the important part was he did apologize.”
He further added:
“He’s displayed empathy now. I think this is a learning experience in which I don’t think he understood the magnitude of the movie because he didn’t watch it. I don’t think he understood the magnitude of the people that were affected, how they were impacted and how fast hate can spread and how this can snowball.”
The veteran, who also serves as the NBPA President, said he strongly condemns anti-Semitism.
“It’s safe to say that we know that Kyrie and all of us — me specifically, I can speak for myself — specifically condemn antisemitism in any form. I am specifically against it. I specifically believe in promoting equality, diversity of inclusion.
“I had conversations behind the scenes similar to what I’m having now,” McCollum said. “I’m speaking to the league. I’m speaking to people in positions in power. I’m speaking to people with a Jewish background to gain more information, more knowledge personally.
“This is an ongoing situation, so I don’t feel comfortable speaking to certain things yet as I didn’t feel comfortable speaking to certain things regarding Sarver because I was still gathering information and they were still deliberating on what decisions to be made.”
At the time of writing, Irving is serving a suspension and has missed two games for the Nets already.
LeBron James Speaks Out On Kyrie Irving’s Suspension
Prior to McCollum, it was Kyrie Irving’s former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, LeBron James, who spoke out on the issue after his team’s loss to the Utah Jazz earlier this week.
James hoped that the 30-year-old would understand the consequences of his actions while also adding that what he did caused harm.
There’s no place in this world for it. Nobody can benefit from that and I what Kyrie did caused a lot of harm to a lot of people. And he has since, over the last — I think it was today, or yesterday — he apologized. But he caused some harm, and I think it’s unfortunate.
Irving’s controversy just compounds the Nets’ woes further. They have been in the news for the wrong reasons. If it started with Ben Simmons getting flak, it later saw the firing of Steve Nash as head coach. The side is currently 4-6 after their recent loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
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