Kyrie Irving went back and forth with reporters at a press conference after the Brooklyn Nets’ 125-116 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night. He was asked about his recent tweet promoting the controversial documentary, Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.
“Can you please stop calling it a promotion? What am I promoting?” he said after the game. “Let’s move on. Let’s move on. Let’s move on, don’t dehumanize me up here.”
Irving continued: “I can post whatever I want, so say that, and shut it down and move on to the next question. I don’t have to understand anything from you.”
As he was walking out of the room, Irving reportedly added: “Wish you would feel the same about Black reproductive rights, about the things that actually matter, instead of what I’m posting. Fix your life, bro.”
Irving also defended his recent decision to share a post on Alex Jones: “That was a few weeks ago. I do not stand with Alex Jones’ position, narrative, court case that he had with Sandy Hook, or any of the kids that felt like they had to relive trauma. Or parents that had to relive trauma. Or to be dismissive to all the lives that were lost during that tragic event. My post was a post from Alex Jones that he did in the early ’90s or late ’90s about secret societies in America of occults. And it’s true.”
The tweet in question was condemned by the Nets organization in a statement on social media. Nets owner Joe Tsai also criticized the post on his own Twitter account.
“I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-Semitic disinformation,” Tsai tweeted. “I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.
Rolling Stone has reported that the movie is “stuffed with antisemitic tropes.” In his tweet, Irving linked his followers to the film’s Amazon page.
Check out Irving’s exchange after the Nets’ game below.
Kyrie Irving going back and forth with @NickFriedell during the Nets postgame presser
— 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙣’ 𝙉𝘽𝘼 (@_Talkin_NBA) October 30, 2022#NBATwitter #NetsWorld pic.twitter.com/Mn2dSsirSN
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