Basketball legend Charles Barkley has slammed Kyrie Irving over a controversial tweet, insisting the NBA should suspend the Brooklyn Nets star.
The NBA megastar has become embroiled an off-court saga involving a 2018 movie titled Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America', which Nets team owner Joe Tsai describes as ‘full of anti-Semitic information’.
Irving had tweeted out a link to the film and was criticised by the basketball and Jewish community for doing so.
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However, when questioned about the promotion of a film by a journalist he slammed the reporter for ‘dehumanising’ him.
Barkley, on the other hand, did not mince his words when launching an attack at the Nets player while speaking on Inside the NBA.
The former NBA MVP believed the league had been too slow to act on the incident.
Barkley said: “I think he should have been suspended him,” Barkley said. “I think Adam should have suspended him. First of all, Adam is Jewish — you can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion.
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“You gonna insult me, you have the right, but I have the right to say, ‘You can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion.’ I think the NBA, they made a mistake.
“We’ve suspended people and fined people who have made homophobic slurs. And that was the right thing to do. If you insult the Black community, you should be suspended or fined heavily.”
Barkley added: “I can’t believe we ain’t talking about basketball — we talking about this idiot.
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“When you’re somebody as great at basketball as him, people are going to listen to what you say. I blame the NBA, he should have been suspended.”
Joe Tsai had made his feelings know on the issue soon after the tweet.
He said: “I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation.
“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.”
Barkley's co-host Shaquelle O’Neal was also heavily critical of the posts and Irving’s disregard for the impact of his actions.
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O’Neal said: “You have to be aware of what you are doing. You have to be conscious and I can tell he is not conscious – he doesn’t really care what’s going on.
“But us, I know the game we love and used to promote, it brings people together. It hurts me sometimes when we have to sit up here and talk about stuff that divides the game. We have got to answer for what this idiot has done.
“I stand for equality of all people, I’ve always been like that. It doesn’t matter, your religion or where you’re from. That’s how I was raised.
“I don’t want to sit up here and answer questions for what he’s done. It’s my job to make people happy.
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“I can’t answer for what he’s doing – it is obvious by his answers that he doesn’t really care.”
Topics: NBA, Basketball, US Sports
Jayden Collins