Kyrie Irving is one of basketball’s all-time best dribblers … and one of the universe’s most colossally wonky thinkers.
When the Dallas Mavericks acknowledged that Luka Dončić’s one-man circus was nightly entertaining but ultimately unsuccessful, they decided to do what a lot of teams do. Like when the Dallas Cowboys traded for notorious hothead Charles Haley to help them win Super Bowls in the 1990s. And when the Texas Rangers signed Hall-of-Fame narcissist Alex Rodriguez in 2000 and acquired born-again, bad-always slugger Josh Hamilton in 2007.
Teased with the right talent and lucrative potential, sports franchises are quick to become selectively blind, swallow their integrity and sell their soul to the devil.
Enter Irving.
These are the goody two-shoes Mavericks, remember. Founded by Christian Cowboy Don Carter and led for 21 seasons by star Dirk Nowitzki, who didn’t as much fart in church. But the Mavs are suddenly 12 years removed from their only championship. Dirk retired and is now merely a statue outside American Airlines Center. Dončić is a generational talent, setting every “by the age of 24 … ” record in NBA history. The Mavs made a valiant run to the Western Conference Finals last spring before losing to the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
But this season — hovering around .500 — it felt as though they were wasting Dončić’s brilliance.
Dallas’ desperation heave from half-court? Trading for Irving, one of the most talented players in the history of the sport but also one of the worst teammates and a lunatic conspiracy theorist who would make the staunchest QAnon supporter cringe.
- In 2017 Irving claimed Earth wasn’t round. “The Earth is flat,” he said on a podcast. “It’s right in front of our faces. They lie to us!” A year later he apologized for the uproar his comments caused, but without totally walking back his belief. “Even if you believe in that, don't come out and say that stuff. That’s for intimate conversations because perception and how you’re received, it changes. I’m actually a smart-ass individual.”
- He has publicly doubted the existence of dinosaurs. “These experts find one bone,” he said. “Then they make up 98 percent of it digitally to create pictures of what they think dinosaurs should look like.”
- Irving believes John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas because the president sought to “end the bank cartel in the world.” In an interview with The Boston Globe, he also claimed the Federal Reserve played a role in the plot, adding that he thought the CIA attempted to “hire Jamaicans” to kill reggae music legend Bob Marley.
- He refused to get the COVID vaccine, saying “I’ve done my own research.” His actions prohibited him from playing in the majority of his team’s home games in Brooklyn last season because of New York City’s vaccine mandate.
And for Irving's coup de grace on common sense, earlier this season while still with the Nets, he used his social media to promote a link to the 2018 film Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America. Among other things, the movie falsely claims the murder of more than six million Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust never happened and labels white Jews as “imposters” that were/are responsible for the slave trade.
How hell-bent are the Mavs on winning and how good is Irving at playing basketball? Owner Mark Cuban is Jewish.
Gulp, indeed.
When confronted about his retweet of the movie, Irving initially refused to apologize or disavow antisemitic beliefs. He finally did, through a statement on his Instagram, after the Nets suspended him for eight games. The team then announced it would make a joint donation with Irving of $500,000 to support Jewish civil rights and the Anti-Defamation League. But the ADL refused to accept the money, in essence, because it didn’t believe Irving’s apology was genuine or that he didn’t hold antisemitic beliefs.
Irving then deleted his apology from Instagram, which has 18 million followers, and no other outreach took place to the Jewish community in New York. After his trade to the Mavs, he was asked about the whitewashing of his social media.
“I delete a lot of things on my Instagram,” Irving said after his first practice as a Maverick.“I don’t think he’s one of those guys that would be in Charlottesville marching, chanting ‘Jews will not replace us.’” – Mavs owner Mark Cuban
tweet this
Asked if he stands by the since-deleted apology, he responded in typical cryptic Irving.
“I stand by who I am and why I apologized, and I did it because I care about my family,” Irving said. “I have Jewish members of my family that care for me deeply. Did the media know that beforehand when they call me that word, ‘antisemitic’? No. Did they know anything about my family? No. Everything was assumed. Everything was put out before I had anything to say, and I reacted instead of responding emotionally and maturely. I didn’t mean to be defensive about it or go at anybody, so I stand by my apology. And I stand by my people everywhere — all walks of life, all races, all religions. Same thing.”
Meyers Leonard is a player back in the NBA this year after a two-year absence for calling a gamer a “kike bitch” while playing Call of Duty. While out of the league, Leonard spoke about the incident publicly with the Chabad house at the University of Illinois, his alma mater. He reportedly attended a dinner with Holocaust survivors, had conversations with Jewish leaders and participated in a program to distribute meals to Jewish families in Miami. Per the Chicago Tribune, Leonard visited a Holocaust museum and put on basketball camps for Jewish children.
For his penance, Irving apologized only when suspended and wound up deleting both his original offensive retweet and his ensuing Instagram apology. So … no harm no foul?
In the wake of Irving’s social media promotion last fall, Cuban almost sympathized with him, saying he didn’t think Irving had a “bad heart.”
“I don’t think he’s one of those guys that would be in Charlottesville marching, chanting ‘Jews will not replace us.’” Cuban said in an interview on RealLyfe Productions’ YouTube channel. “I don’t think that’s him. But I think he’s got a lot to learn. If there was just some dude on the street corner saying what Kyrie said, you’d just assume they’re crazy and keep on walking, right? But when they’re a celebrity, you can’t do that, because you have a platform.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is also Jewish, as are a portion of Mavs fans.
“The Mavericks have been exceptional allies in the fight against antisemitism and hate in all forms,” the Dallas ADL chapter said in a statement, “so we are hopeful that Kyrie’s arrival in Dallas will be a positive one, both on and off the court.”
A group called StopAntisemitism told the Observer via email in early February that it was “disappointed” the NBA didn’t do more to make things right after Irving promoted antisemitic misinformation.
According to the group’s executive director, Liora Rez, the damage to the Jewish community “cannot be undone.”
“With this trade to the Dallas Mavericks, Irving is now playing for a team which is owned by Mark Cuban, a proud Jew,” Rez said. “We hope that Cuban takes this opportunity to educate not just Irving but the entire franchise about the many forms that Jew-hatred takes, including Holocaust denial. Together, Cuban and Irving could truly have a positive impact in the fight against antisemitism.”
Irving is an NBA champion and an eight-time All-Star. On the court he is a ball-handling wizard who, if he meshes with Dončić, could lead the Mavs back to the NBA Finals. But off the court, perhaps a trip down the street from the AAC to the JFK Sixth Floor Museum or the nearby Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum is in order.
Said Holocaust Museum CEO and President May Pat Higgins, “We welcome all opportunities to educate groups and individuals who want to learn more about the history of antisemitism and its impact today.”
The ugly, honest truth: While there are some Jewish supporters irrevocably nauseated by Irving in a Mavs uniform, the majority of DFW fans will quickly forgive and forget … if Irving helps Dallas win.
Among his many transgressions, the Cowboys’ Michael Irvin attacked a teammate with a pair of scissors. In between majestic homers and sobriety “relapses,” Hamilton told and retold his story of faith to fans across the area. Even current Mavs coach Jason Kidd has a checkered past littered with domestic abuse.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott, constantly vilified for not performing in playoff games by fans who conveniently disregard his winning the NFL’s prestigious Man of the Year Award in 2022 for his tireless charity work in the community.
As Kyrie Irving and his legendary toxicity remind us, we’d rather win with the bad boys than lose with the choirboys.
