From Outrage to Outreach: Thoughts on the Kyrie Irving Incident

Like so many, I have some thoughts on the Kyrie Irving debacle.

First of all, I should make it clear that this is something that hits me on many levels, not the least of which is the fact that I am a Jewish Brooklyn Nets fan (have been since they played in the ABA as the New York Nets in the early ’70s) and so I have a personal stake in all of this on top of the much more personal stake I have in any question of antisemitism.

I should also say that, like a lot of Nets fans, I wasn’t thrilled when the Nets signed Kyrie but felt that any drama he would bring would be compensated for by his play and the fact that signing him was the price for signing Kevin Durant. And, for a long time, I defended Kyrie not for his stances — which have often been indefensible — but for the fact that he gets a ton of press for his bad actions but very little for the many good works he does, particularly in the Black community.

Obviously, his irresponsible promotions of conspiracy theories, of Alex Jones’ material, and, most recently, of the antisemitic propaganda film “Hebrew to Negroes,” brought things to a different level.

So some thoughts…

Kyrie says his doesn’t hate Jews and didn’t mean to disparage them. Given what I’ve heard from people who actually…