Kyrie Irving is in yet another battle in the media, a battle that he quite frankly cannot win. Him posting about a movie filled with antisemitic tropes on his social media has led to him having to defend himself from NBA fans and media members alike questioning him on whether he shares any of these sentiments.
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He has since agreed to pay $500,000 to the Anti-Defamation League while also agreeing to sit down with Jewish NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver to discuss the same.
Irving however, isn’t the first former Cavalier to have gotten in trouble with the Jewish community. LeBron James is someone who has had to deal with something similar but on a smaller scale given how apt he was in apologizing to anyone he’s hurt.
LeBron James once shared lyrics that proved to be antisemitic in nature
LeBron James took to his Instagram in late December of 2018 to share a video of him lip-syncing to ASMR by 21 Savage. One of the lyrics in this video is 21 saying, ‘We been getting’ that Jewish money, everything is Kosher’.
James putting this on his story angered the Jewish community for spreading tropes that weren’t real and were actually harmful. US journalist, Darren Rovell explains it best down below.
What separates this instance from what Kyrie Irving did is the fact that LeBron was incredibly prompt with his apology. “Apologies for sure, if I offended anyone. That’s not why I posted that lyric. I actually thought it was a compliment and obviously it wasn’t through the lens of a lot of people.”
21 Savage even apologized for his own lyric.
Kyrie Irving is yet to apologize
When pressed about apologizing for what he shared on his social media, Kyrie Irving did not explicitly state that he is sorry. He claimed that he cannot be antisemitic given his heritage.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Nets guard will be able to muster up an apology or if he’ll continue to beat around the bush with his statements.
