The Nets won’t take any disciplinary action against Kyrie Irving for his promotion of a movie that’s considered to be antisemitic, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. In a pre-game session with reporters, coach Steve Nash said he’s not familiar with the 2018 film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which Irving has been touting on social media. He added that he doesn’t expect this latest incident to be a distraction for the rest of the team (Twitter link).
“I don’t think our group is overly affected by the situation,” Nash said. “We’ve had so many situations over the last two and a half years that I think we’ve kind of built an immunity to it.”
Irving defended his association with the film in a Twitter post this afternoon, writing, “I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs. The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday. I embrace and want to learn from all walks of life and religions.”
The NBA hasn’t taken any action against Irving, but it did release a statement regarding the controversy (Twitter link). “Hate speech of any kind is unacceptable and runs counter to the NBA’s values of equality, inclusion and respect,” the league wrote. “We believe we all have a role to play in ensuring such words or ideas, including antisemitic ones, are challenged and refuted and we will continue working with all members of the NBA community to ensure that everyone understands the impact of their words and actions.”
There’s more from Brooklyn:
- There’s no easy solution to the Ben Simmons dilemma, Lewis writes in a full story. Although it’s still early in the season, Simmons hasn’t looked like the same player since returning from a 16-month absence. Lewis talked to scouts who say that Simmons no longer seems to have the explosive moves to make up for his reluctance to shoot from outside. Lewis notes that the Nets have used 71 lineup combinations so far, fourth most in the league, and Nash has been experimenting with different roles for Simmons. “Ben and I work every day at this, trying to give him the confidence to go out there and be aggressive and try to get back to at least the feeling of joy on the court,” Nash said.
- On his latest Hoop Collective podcast, Brian Windhorst of ESPN said an unidentified scout observed that Simmons seems “happy” whenever he has to come out of games because of foul trouble (video link).
- Joe Harris, who returned last week after two ankle surgeries, said he doesn’t expect to sit out back-to-backs, but his ankle will have to be monitored for a while, Lewis relays (via Twitter).
- After missing the first five games of the season while recovering from ankle surgery, Seth Curry is active tonight, Lewis tweets.
More must-reads: