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The Nets had already suspended Irving at least five games after
he stopped short 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."
But the apology was not enough to stop Nike from suspending ties
with Irving.
"At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we
condemn any form of antisemitism. 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," Nike said in
a statement.
"We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and
its impact on everyone," the statement said.
Several media outlets have reported the shoe deal to be worth
$11 million, but Reuters could not confirm that.
The Nets will also not pay him during his suspension. He is 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, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
The Nets had said he would be suspended no less than 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 in the documentary," and said he took
full responsibility for his decision to share the content with
his followers.
Irving said the film "contained some false anti-Semitic
statements, narratives, and language that were untrue and
offensive to the Jewish Race/Religion."
"I want to clarify any confusion on where I stand fighting
against anti-Semitism by apologizing for posting the documentary
without context and a factual explanation outlining the specific
beliefs in the documentary I agreed with and disagreed with,"
Irving wrote.
The controversy comes at a fraught moment for Jews in the United
States. The FBI warned on Thursday there was a credible threat
to synagogues in New Jersey, a state that lies just across the
harbor from the New York City borough of Brooklyn, which has one
of the densest populations of Jews in the world.
Irving's suspension and apology follow a controversy generated
by Ye, the rapper formerly 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 are not the first time that he has
courted controversy in the NBA.
He played in just 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 the city of New York.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif.; Editing by
Michael Perry)
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