For the second time in recent years, Kyrie Irving is making headlines for his very public and somewhat controversial opinions.

Kyrie Irving is a point guard for the Brooklyn Nets and has been in the NBA for 11 years. Prior to this recent controversy, Irving was under fire for refusing to get vaccinated during the 2020 – 2021 season. He ended up missing many games that season because of this and was criticized heavily for his views.

Last week, Kyrie Irving put out a tweet with a link to the movie “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.” This movie upset people because its main drive is based on antisemitic beliefs and the thought that Jewish people lied about their origin. It also includes claims that the Holocaust never happened. Although Irving did say in an interview he disagrees with that aspect of the movie, it does not make up for his actions. Irving and the Nets team have pledged that both would donate $500,000 to charities that work against hate.

Wayne Hills Sophomore, Paul Kouletas, said, “Personally, I don’t think Kyrie should be suspended from the league or canceled, but what he posted was not right. He should publicly apologize and own up to his mistakes to clear everything up.”

Many people have called out Irving on his unruly behavior, including the Nets owner Joe Tsai, Shaquille Oneal, and other NBA media analysts.

One person who has come to the defense of Irving is Kanye West. It is a very well-known fact that Kanye has been under fire recently for his own “antisemitic” opinions. Prior to November 3rd, Kanye was suspended from Twitter. His first tweet back from this suspension was an image of Irving’s face. This was enough to gain almost 300k likes and to start even more controversy surrounding Kanye. This inevitably led to yet another multi-tweet Kanye rant.

Most recently, Irving has been dropped by his long-time shoe partnership company, Nike. The company released a statement to CNN which said, “At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism. To that end, we’ve made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8. We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”

Following this, Irving’s former teammate, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics, took to Twitter and took a shot at Nike. Brown tweeted, “Since when does Nike care about ethics?” As of November 12th, he is yet to follow up on the tweet.

Nets owner Joe Tsai said that he met with Kyrie Irving on November 11th. On his Twitter account, he said, “We spent quality time to understand each other, and it’s clear to me that Kyrie does not have any beliefs of hate towards Jewish people or any group. The Nets and Kyrie, together with the NBA and NBPA, are working constructively toward a process of forgiveness, healing, and education.”

Despite this seemingly positive tweet from Tsai, Irving is still suspended without pay. It is unclear how his return will impact the team and if he will continue to take on the roles that he formerly did.