Jaylen Brown is the latest star athlete to show support for Kyrie Irving before fully understanding the situation, and the Boston Celtics star has quickly backtracked.
Irving returned from his seven-game suspension for the Brooklyn Nets’ game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night. Hours before tip-off, a large collection of people representing the Black Hebrew Israelites gathered outside the Barclays Center to show their support for Irving. Brown thought that was a cool gesture, so he quote-tweeted the following video of the rally and wrote “ Energy.”
The Black Hebrew Israelite members were handing out flyers featuring the same type of anti-semitic propaganda that Irving got in trouble for supporting. The propaganda was from a group called the Radical Hebrew Israelites, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Brown followed up on Twitter by claiming he was unaware of what group he was supporting.
“I was not aware of what specific group that was outside of Barclay’s Center tonight. I was celebrating the unification of our people welcoming the return of Kyrie to the court, first glance I thought it was a known fraternity the (C/Que’s) Omega psi phi (step’n) showing support,” Brown wrote.
Irving was repeatedly asked questions about the group following Brooklyn’s 127-115 win, and he said that is a conversation for another day.
Brown is not the only prominent NBA player to show support for Irving, but he was given a quick reminder of the risks involved with doing so.
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