Nike decides to suspend its relationship with Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving over promoting anti-Semitism by sharing a film link. The athlete had a media round to clarify the situation by apologizing and donating $500k to the Anti-Defamation League.
His team added an extra $500k making the amount to the league $1 million. However, reports show that the league rejected the donation by the star.
Several people felt his apology wasn’t sincere enough. The Nets organized another media round for the athlete to apologize again. But this time, he was defiant.
It led the team to suspend him for at least five games or until he comes “correct.” There have been several reactions concerning the situation about the star not directly saying “sorry.”
Fellow NBA star, Kevin Durant also spoke about it before Kyrie Irving’s Nike relationship was suspended. Durant stated that Brooklyn Nets could’ve avoided the whole thing by keeping quiet.
Nike has announced it is suspending its relationship with Kyrie Irving "effectively immediately" and will not launch the new Kyrie 8 pic.twitter.com/Pr6lA7enl3
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 5, 2022
NIKE Suspends Relationship With Kyrie Irving ‘No Place For Hate Speech’
On Friday, Nike decided to suspend its relationship with Kyrie Irving, condemning any form of anti-Semitism. The company announced that they believe there’s no place for hate speech.
Next, the giant brand said they are not going to launch the athlete’s Kyrie 8 basketball shoe. NIKE claim they are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.
It comes after Irving’s club put him on hold for at least five games until he “satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct.” The star is facing “cancellation” like Kanye West, who has lost several meaningful business deals with Balenciaga, Adidas, and so on.
Now Kyrie Irving’s relationship with NIKE has also been suspended for tweeting a link to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.” The movie reportedly claims that “white Jews” perpetuated the slave trade.
It also admonishes that, by and large, the Jews are in control of the media/banking industries, among other accusations. Irving’s team boss, Joe Tsai, was disappointed in him for a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation.