The suspension player Kyrie Irving from Brooklyn Nets following his antisemitic post on social media has made a lot of noise around the internet in the last few days. His teammate Kevin Durant has recently talked about this issue for the first time with reporters Friday. From his statement, it appears that Durant tries to stand on neutral ground and play it safe.
“I’m not here to judge somebody or talk down on their life or how they feel their views,” Durant initially said at a shootaround. “I just didn’t like anything that went on. I felt like it was all unnecessary. I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization.”
As his statement raised many questions and confusion among fans, Durant decided to further clarify himself on Twitter. He twitted, “I don’t condone hate speech or anti-Semitism, I’m about spreading love always. Our game Unites people and I wanna make sure that’s at the forefront”.
Just wanna clarify the statements I made at shootaround, I see some people are confused..I don’t condone hate speech or anti-semetism, I’m about spreading love always. Our game Unites people and I wanna make sure that’s at the forefront
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) November 4, 2022
The Irving incident has been the talk of the town and yet none of the Nets players have directly confronted him for what he did. In recent days, Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, and Charles Barkley have used public venues to condemn Irving, while current players have stayed silent.
Fans are disappointed with such an approach from the Nets stars. Although the team has already suspended Irving on Thursday after he refused to definitively say he holds no antisemitic views in a press conference earlier in the day. The team’s statement announcing his suspension called Irving “currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets.”
But the suspension couldn’t compensate for Irving’s immature and hurtful act in such a sensitive issue. Because staying neutral when a fire is raging, is standing with the ones who lit it.
