Kyrie drama continues

Photo from CNN

Kyrie Irving’s name has been splashed all over the media and is usually synonymous with controversy, especially over the past two years. Since the start of the pandemic, Irving has been vocal about his decision not to get vaccinated for COVID and has stood firmly with it. However, now he finds himself tangled in the controversy of hate speech for his Twitter post and the true intention behind his actions.

Before we get into that, Irving is undoubtedly a top player in the National Basketball Association and, when fully healthy, is an MVP candidate every year. He is truly gifted at the sport and one of, if not the most exciting players in the league. But, on the other hand, Irving has had his on and off-the-court issues, like verbally blowing up on his teammates or abandoning teams after publicly committing to them for the long term.

Now Irving is under fire for a post on his Twitter that included a link to an Alex Jones documentary that contains antisemitic content. Irving was quick to respond that he was not promoting antisemitism, but rather the reason for his post was to show the truth and history of his own culture. Irving continues to get blasted by the media in every aspect possible, to the point most believe he may never play in the NBA again.

The NBA Players Association has come to the defense of Kyrie Irving since the post. The vice president of the group, Jaylen Brown, a former teammate of Irving’s, has been outspoken in defense of Irving.

He was quoted saying, “He made a mistake. He posted something. There was no distinction. Maybe we can move forward, but the terms in which he has to fulfill to return, I think not just speaking for me, speaking as a vice president from a lot of our players, we didn’t agree with the terms that was required for him to come back and we’re waiting for this Tuesday meeting to happen to see what comes of it. But we’ll go from there. That’s all I’ll say.”

Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity.