After initially saying Friday he wished the Nets had “kept quiet as an organization,” Kevin Durant took to Twitter to try to make clear these feedback.
“I see some people are confused,” Durant tweeted about his shootaround feedback he made when discussing the firestorm over Kyrie Irving’s antisemitic controversy. ”I don’t condone hate speech or anti-semetism, I’m about spreading love all the time. Our recreation Unites folks and I wanna be sure that’s on the forefront.”
Hours after the Nets suspended Irving for no less than 5 video games for failure to problem a reliable apology after posting the hyperlink to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” — a movie crammed with hateful antisemitic rhetoric — on his social media channels final week, Durant shared his ideas for the primary time.
“I ain’t here to judge nobody or talk down on nobody for how they feel, their views or anything, it’s just … I just didn’t like anything that went on. I feel like it was all unnecessary,” he advised reporters. “I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don’t like none of it.”
Durant referred to as it “an unfortunate situation.”
“It just sucks all around for everybody. Hopefully, we can move past it,” he added. “That’s simply the best way of the NBA now. Media, so many shops now and their tales hit fairly quick now. That’s the place all of the chaos is coming from, from all people’s opinions. Everybody has an opinion on this case and we’re listening to it nonstop.
“But once the balls start bouncing and we get into practice none of that stuff seeps into the gym. So that’s the cool part about being in the league. But once you step off the court, everyone got the microphones out and the microscopes looking at you asking you what you feel about it. That’s been difficult. But the game is the constant for us.”
When requested whether or not or not he thought the five-game suspension was warranted, Durant mentioned he trusts the group “to do what’s right.”
The Nets issued an announcement Thursday night time saying Irving “is currently unfit to be associated” with the franchise after Irving held a press convention and refused to apologize.
The crew mentioned Irving should full “a series of objective remedial measures” earlier than he’s eligible to be reinstated with the crew.
“We were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material in the film. This was not the first time he had the opportunity — but failed — to clarify,” the Nets mentioned in an announcement.
After the penalty has handed down, Irving then took to Instagram to try to provide the kind of apology each the Nets and the NBA had been in search of all week.
“To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize. I initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled Anti-Semitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters that were hurt from the hateful remarks made in the Documentary,” he wrote. “I wish to make clear any confusion on the place I stand preventing towards antisemtism by apologizing for posting the documentary with out context and a factual clarification outlining the precise beliefs within the Documentary I agreed with and disagreed with.
“I had no intentions to disrespect any Jewish cultural history regarding the Holocaust or perpetuate any hate.”
In addition to Irving’s ban, the Nets (2-6) are within the hiring course of to seek out Steve Nash’s alternative and have additionally left Ben Simmons at house for at the least the primary two video games of a three-game highway journey as he battles soreness in his left knee.
That leaves Durant as the only star to captain a Nets crew set to play the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets and Dallas Mavericks earlier than returning house to host the New York Knicks.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com