What to Know About Kyrie Irving’s Antisemitic Movie Post and the Fallout From It
Irving spoke out about the film during an ESPN appearance on Wednesday. The “Empire” star said he was “devastated” by his anti-Semitic comments made during a May 30 appearance on ESPN SportsNation. “We are sorry that we didn’t live up to our own standards,” Irving wrote in a statement issued Tuesday to ESPN and published online. “We recognize our actions do not reflect the values of our organization and we are going to take personal responsibility for them. We intend to do better.”
The comments come after Irving was criticized for comparing Jews to the “starve[d] dog.”
But Irving, who is set to be the next Boston Celtics player in 2018, also made comments about Jews during the original interview. When asked why he has made anti-Semitic comments on the airwaves, he said: “To be clear, I am not a racist, or a bigot.”
Irving’s original comments came on May 30, 2017, during a conversation with ESPN host Jemele Hill. Hill and other members of the sports media had been discussing Irving’s controversial comments that a white kid couldn’t possibly be subjected to the same discrimination that black people suffered. Then, Irving talked about how his mom died when he was a boy and told a story about how he was the only black kid in school and was the victim of “dog-whistling” once.
Later, during the interview, Irving was asked by Hill whether he has made racist comments in the past. He replied, “I made a comment about Jews,” Hill reported.
Hill then asked Irving, “Where?”
Irving responded:
“So I’m like, ‘You’re not a Jew, what are you, a starve-dog?’ and he said, ‘Why I
