(Reuters) – Nike Inc. on Friday suspended its relationship with Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving and canceled its next Irving-branded shoe release within the aftermath of his promotion of an anti-Semitic documentary.
The Nets had already suspended Irving not less than five games after he stopped in need of fully disavowing the documentary on two occasions. Irving later issued a more fulsome apology late on Thursday for promoting a project he said contained “false anti-Semitic statements.”
However the apology was not enough to stop Nike from suspending ties with Irving.
“At Nike, we imagine there isn’t a place for hate speech and we condemn any type of antisemitism. To that end, we have made the choice to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and can not launch the Kyrie 8,” Nike said in an announcement.
“We’re deeply saddened and dissatisfied by the situation and its impact on everyone,” the statement said.
Several media outlets have reported the shoe deal to be value $11 million, but Reuters couldn’t confirm that.
The Nets will even not pay him during his suspension. He’s on a $36.9 million contract this season, after having earned nearly $195 million in his previous 11 seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and the Nets, in accordance with Basketball-Reference.com.
The Nets had said he could be suspended a minimum of five games and until he undergoes a series of unspecified “remedial measures.”
Irving has faced heavy criticism since posting a link on Twitter last week to a 2018 commentary and defending the post over the weekend. The seven-time All Star has since deleted the Twitter post.
Posting on Instagram Thursday, he apologized to those “hurt from the hateful remarks made within the documentary,” and said he took full responsibility for his decision to share the content along with his followers.
Irving said the film “contained some false anti-Semitic statements, narratives, and language that were unfaithful and offensive to the Jewish Race/Religion.”
“I would like to make clear any confusion on where I stand fighting against anti-Semitism by apologizing for posting the documentary without context and a factual explanation outlining the particular beliefs within the documentary I agreed with and disagreed with,” Irving wrote.
The controversy comes at a fraught moment for Jews in the US. The FBI warned on Thursday there was a reputable threat to synagogues in Latest Jersey, a state that lies just across the harbor from the Latest York City borough of Brooklyn, which has considered one of the densest populations of Jews on this planet.
Irving’s suspension and apology follow an argument generated by Ye, the rapper formerly often known as Kanye West, who was suspended by social media platforms last month for posts that online users condemned as anti-Semitic.
Irving’s social media posts should not the primary time that he has courted controversy within the NBA.
He played in only 29 of the Nets’ 82 regular season games for the 2021-22 season after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine despite a mandate by town of Latest York.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif.; Editing by Michael Perry)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
