LeBron James Speaks On Kyrie Irving, But NBA Players Largely Silent On Situation, Mirroring Foot-Dragging By League
05.11.2022 - 20:47
/ deadline.com
On Friday, Lakers forward LeBron James finally addressed the Kyrie Irving situation, a day after the Brooklyn Nets guard and former teammate on the Cleveland Cavaliers was suspended for anti-semitic comments.
James, who has quickly spoken out many times on various race-related controversies, finally got around to addressing the Irving situation after days of silence.
“He caused some harm, and I think it’s unfortunate,” James said to reporters. “But I don’t stand on the position to harm people when it comes to your voice or your platform or anything. So it doesn’t matter what color your skin is, how tall you are, what position you’re in. If you are promoting or soliciting or saying harmful things to any community that harms people, then I don’t respect it. I don’t condone it.”
James also referenced his media company Uninterrupted’s decision to spike an episode of his YouTube show, The Shop, featuring Kanye West, himself involved in controversy over his anti-semitic remarks.
“Part of the reason why I didn’t air The Shop episode, why we kicked that out of the archives,” he said. “Because it was hate conversation going on there. And I don’t represent that. There’s no place in this world for it. Nobody can benefit from that, and I believe what Kyrie did caused some harm to a lot of people.”
Irving was finally suspended Thursday by the Brooklyn Nets for his anti-semitic comments and ambiguous apologies. But it took days before the team took its first action in the matter, twice supervising Irving’s statements on the matter, which were largely mealy-mouthed.
That botched approach was topped by NBA league commissioner Adam Silver, who said he would meet with Irving “in the next week” to discuss the matter. He’ll have