NBA Legend Rips ?Idiot? Kyrie Irving Apart Over His Tweet Promoting a Controversial Film: ?I Think He Should Have Been Suspended?

Kyrie Irving has been dominating the news lately; however, it’s not because of his on-court exploits. The Brooklyn Nets point guard landed himself in hot water after he shared a link to a film??Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America? on Twitter. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the film contains antisemitic tropes. And as Irving shared the link to the controversial film, it was perceived as a promotion, tangling him up in trouble.

Charles Barkley did not pull any punches in his criticism of Irving. Talking on TNT’s?‘Inside the NBA’, the NBA legend stated that the league mishandled the situation and argued that the Nets superstar should have been suspended.

“I think he should have been suspended. I think Adam (Silver) should have suspended him,” Barkley said. He then highlighted how NBA commissioner Adam Silver is Jewish, and then referenced Irving’s $37 million contract for this season.

“You can?t take my $40 million and insult my religion,” he stated. “If you?re gonna insult me, you have the right. But I have the right to say, ‘No, you?re not going to take my $40 million and insult my religion,'” the NBA Hall of Famer added.

Barkley went on to argue how players have been fined or suspended for homophobic slurs in the past. He asserted that Irving should be suspended or fined heavily because he insulted the Black community. Referencing the controversy that Anthony Edwards found himself in after making a homophobic slur and being fined $40,000 by the league, Barkley argued that the NBA should have taken the same approach in Irving’s case.

Moreover, the NBA legend went as far as to label Irving as an “idiot”. “I can’t believe that we ain?t talking about basketball, we?re talking about this idiot,” Barkley said.

The Brooklyn Nets and their owner strongly condemned the tweet by Kyrie Irving

Evidently, Charles Barkley did not hold back while voicing his views on the entire controversy. Interestingly, even the Brooklyn Nets and the team’s owner, Joe Tsai, strongly opposed Kyrie Irving‘s tweet.

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The Nets made it clear in a statement to The Athletic that they have zero tolerance for the promotion of any sort of hate speech. While Joe Tsai went on to vent his displeasure with Irving’s apparent promotion of a film “based on a book full of antisemitic disinformation.”

Irving chose to defend himself on Twitter after enduring a barrage of condemnation. He called himself an Omnist. Furthermore, he argued that the antisemitic allegations hurled against him are baseless. However, possibly reconsidering his “promotion” tweet or the uproar it provoked, the former NBA champion has since deleted it.

In the midst of the controversy, Irving had his worst game as a Brooklyn Nets player. In 33 minutes of action against the Chicago Bulls, he managed only four points on 2-12 shooting. Furthermore, his dismal performance came after the franchise parted ways with its head coach, Steve Nash.

The entire situation has put Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets under the microscope. It will be intriguing to see where both parties go from here.

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What do you think the future holds for Irving and the Nets? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.