The Celtics star, who is vice president of the NBPA, criticized Nike’s decision on Twitter.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown criticized Nike and its founder Phil Knight after the business maven said that Nets guard Kyrie Irving “stepped over the line” when he shared an antisemitic film on Twitter.
Brown shared his thoughts regarding Knight’s comments on his personal Twitter account Thursday.
“Since when did Nike care about ethics?” he asked. The comments from Knight came on the heels of the apparel company suspending its relationship with the Nets star last week.
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company said in a statement. “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.”
Irving was given a list of items that he needed to satisfy in order to return to the court for the Nets franchise, which suspended him “at least five games” earlier this month. Brown, who is vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, told reporters on Tuesday that he believes the union will appeal the suspension handed down by the Nets because “a lot of the players expressed discomfort with the terms” handed down by the team.
While there is no clarity regarding whether Irving has met any of the conditions from the team, the point guard met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver earlier this week to discuss the matter.
1 comment
I am an 81 year old black divorced mother who raised 2 sons who both served in the military in Georgia. We all experienced racism and discrimination our entire lives. There is ample proof that when black people, especially men achieve any economic status , white society tries to bring them down, have total control over aspect of their lives on what they can say, think, do, or any other action. Kyrie did not do anything wrong or say anything wrong. He did not promote the film, produce the film, or comment on the film. He put a link on his twitter page. The rich folk who are profiting from this film are not being sanctioned.The plan in America has always been to blame the victim, especially black people. The list of actions they want him to take in order to be accepted back in their good gracious were pure racist and remisent of slavery days and ment to break his spirit, demasculate him and remind him who controls his money and future. He doesn’t owe an apology to anyone. Black people had better aside the differences and learn to stick together and support each other no matter what, just as other segments of society does. We have to be willing to make sacrifices and suffer inconvenience to demand the respect we are due. Realize that the only real power we have is unity and"green power". We should use it wisely. I am so angry and appalled by this unnecessary fiasco designed to let a black man know that no matter his talents or successes, they are in control.