During official NBA press conferences, unrepentant antisemite Kyrie Irving has proudly worn a kaffiyeh--Muslim garb that, regardless of what it originally represented, is now inextricably connected with terrorism against Israel specifically and the Jewish people in general--while making it clear that he supports Hamas against Israel, but the NBA remains silent; this is disappointing but not surprising, because the NBA--despite its social justice posturing and its virtue signaling--cares about profits more than it cares about anything else. As I noted in my previous article about Irving, it would be great if the NBA stepped up, spoke out, and educated not only Irving but his millions of fans and social media followers:
Dallas owner Mark Cuban is Jewish and he has spoken out recently about the worldwide surge in antisemitism and about his personal experiences with antisemitism. It would be great if Cuban either helped Irving educate himself, or provided appropriate discipline to ensure that Irving understood that as a high-paid employee of the Dallas Mavericks he has a responsibility to not support terrorism--assuming that the Dallas Mavericks and the NBA are willing to publicly to take a position against supporting terrorism. Over 100 universities have publicly united against terrorism, and over 1500 lawyers from some of the world's biggest law firms issued a public statement condemning Hamas' terrorism:
We, the undersigned group of attorneys from around the world, publicly condemn and denounce the unspeakable acts of mass terror perpetrated by Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, against civilians in Israel.
We stand for the rule of law. We are shocked and horrified by the ghastly barbarism carried out against innocent civilians. We are angered by the cowardly crimes against humanity committed and the massive scale on which they were perpetrated.
We stand for moral consistency. We are profoundly disturbed by the litany of free people throughout the world who are indifferent, or even hostile, when confronted with Jewish suffering.
We stand against injustice. We therefore affirm that Israel has the undeniable right and obligation to pursue justice against those who harm it and murder its citizens, and to defend itself against further aggression.
We stand for peace. We affirm the right of all people – Jews and non-Jews – to live in peace and security, and we wholeheartedly reject the moral equivalence of bloodthirsty terrorists and Israel’s imperative to defend its population.
Finally, we affirm the promise made by our forebears — that never again will Jews sit by while other Jews are slaughtered en masse.
We call on our colleagues in the legal profession and elsewhere to stand with us and denounce terrorism against Israel and Jews throughout the world.
The NBA has tremendous power and influence. It would be wonderful if the league issued a similar statement signed by Commissioner Adam Silver, every team owner, every coach, and every player.
The problem is not just that the NBA turns a blind eye and deaf ear to Irving's proud expressions of antisemitism; the NBA also works with Irving to suppress expressions of Jewish pride. Irving has revealed himself to be both a bully and a coward. Here is one account of how he used his power as a star player to stifle a fan's expression of Jewish pride on New Year's Day:
When Kyrie Irving's Dallas Mavericks came to Salt Lake City on Monday to face the Utah Jazz, Rabbi Avremi Zippel knew he had to be there.
Zippel, his brother Chaim, their father Benny and their friend Moshe Nigri--all of whom attended Monday night’s basketball matchup--are US Chabad rabbis who work at the Hasidic movement's Utah outpost in Salt Lake City. Avremi is a huge Jazz fan, and he wanted to send a message to Irving, the NBA star who was suspended in November 2022 after he promoted an antisemitic documentary that denied the Holocaust and initially refused to apologize. He later apologized following an eight-game suspension.
The episode still stung Zippel, so the quartet of rabbis secured courtside seats and held up identical signs reading, "I'm a Jew and I'm proud," with a Star of David replacing the "o" in "proud."
"Some of the things that Kyrie said about the Jewish community and about Holocaust denial were vile and disgusting," Zippel told The Salt Lake Tribune. He did not respond to Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment on Wednesday.
An arena guard snapped the rabbis' picture and Jazz owner Ryan Smith greeted them. At first, Zippel said, the signs did not appear to upset anyone--including Irving, who complimented the message and showed the rabbis his Star of David tattoo.
"He comes by, he looks at the sign, and he says, 'Nice. I’m a Jew, too,' Zippel told the Tribune, adding that Irving's response bothered him. Irving--who isn't Jewish but has said he has Jewish relatives--may have been echoing the Black Hebrew Israelite claim that African-Americans are the true Jews. But Zippel said he wished Irving a happy new year and moved on.
But moments later, according to Zippel, Irving's tone changed: As the Dallas guard dribbled the ball up the court, he yelled to the rabbis, "Don't gotta bring something like that to the game."
During the next timeout, a security guard approached Zippel's group and checked their tickets. Then another guard told them to put the signs down, according to Zippel's account. At halftime, a Jazz staffer told them that Irving had complained to security.
Irving subsequently denied asking for the Jewish pride sign to be put down, but the statement issued by the Jazz to clarify what happened contradicts Irving's denial by noting that the request to put the sign down came from a player (presumably Irving): "During an out-of-bounds play in the first quarter of yesterday's Jazz game against the Dallas Mavericks, there was a group sitting courtside whose signs sparked an interaction with a player that created a distraction and interfered with play of (the) game. As the next step in standard security protocol, the fans were asked to take down their signs."
The NBA's message is clear: Jews expressing Jewish pride is an unacceptable distraction at an NBA game. It will be interesting to see if Black pride, gay pride, or any other kind of pride is similarly considered to be distracting.
Here is what Rabbi Zippel posted on X regarding this incident:
Last night, I attended the Jazz/Mavericks game. I brought with me a sign (12 x 18 inches to be exact) that read "I'm a Jew and I'm proud."
In the middle of the first quarter, after abruptly coming over to check our tickets, we were informed that we could not hold up our signs during the game.
The rationale given was that fans can not hold any signage while courtside.
A number of Jazz employees corroborated that
--they knew of no such policy
--the request to take them down was made after Kyrie Irving saw the signs, verbally commented on them to us, and complained to Dallas security.
That Kyrie Irving is a coward with the spine of a goldfish is not news to me.
That the Mavericks organization covers for him is, sadly, not news to me.
I'm a lifelong Jazz fan and don't intend to change any of that anytime soon.
I've lived through some years when the basketball the Jazz played on the court was kinda embarrassing.
And yet.
Last time, for the first time in my life, I was really disappointed in the Utah Jazz.
TNT's excellent "Inside the NBA" program often weighs in on social justice issues, and they devoted one segment to Irving's antisemitism in November 2022, but otherwise they have ignored the topic; even more significantly, I am not aware of the program making a single statement either supporting Israel after October 7 or condemning Hamas for the October 7 attacks and the ongoing hostage crisis. Their silence is complicity with evil and it is extremely disappointing, though not surprising.
It is vile that anyone would support Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel. The reality is that Anti-Zionism is Indistinguishable From Antisemitism Because Israel is the Jewish Homeland. Antisemitism is soaring, and responsible, caring humans speak and act in a way to curb antisemitism, as opposed to ignoring or even encouraging antisemitism.
Irving has a right to believe that the Earth is flat (and I doubt that he could even find Gaza on an unlabeled map of the world) and he has a right to his political beliefs--but the NBA also has a right to decide who to employ. Fans, media members, and the general public have a right to let Irving know just how ignorant, hateful, hurtful, and harmful his beliefs are.
Silence is complicity, and if we have learned anything about atrocities from the Holocaust to 10/7/23 it is that silence leads to violence. I will never be silent, and I encourage others to speak out. The NBA may never take a stand on any issue based purely on moral grounds, but if enough people can convince the NBA that antisemitism is against the league's commercial interests then perhaps the NBA will take appropriate action.