The Brooklyn Nets suspended Kyrie Irving five games approximately one week after he first posted a link to an antisemitic documentary. Irving was given multiple chances to apologize for the action, but he didn’t do so until after the suspension.
“This is amid, I think both Nets’ management and the league office pushing Joe Tsai to be more punitive,” said Adrian Wojnarowski. “A suspension, a punishment. As the days wore on and Kyrie Irving had a chance on Saturday night and then again yesterday publicly with the media to disavow and condemn the contents of that movie, to say that he was not antisemitic. Those two public appearances and then a joint statement with the Nets a couple of days ago that still fell short. I think finally Joe Tsai realized even after Adam Silver didn’t want to wait for Joe Tsai anymore to figure this out with Kyrie Irving… he put his own statement out and wasn’t going to just allow the Nets to handle this, let Joe Tsai handle it.
“You come to a situation yesterday where the Nets suspended Kyrie Irving for at least five games and come out with a strongly worded statement that certainly many would have liked to have seen days ago.”
