>My Take: I couldn’t be prouder of Shaq, Charles, and Reggie for their bold and straightforward comments. They are at the forefront of Black athletes that are condemning the recent antisemitic social media posts by Kyrie Irving and Ye (Kanye West). It’s a genuine “I am Spartacus” moment.
>The NBA Players Association also released a statement on Nov. 1: “Anti-Semitism has no place in our society. The NBPA is focused on creating an environment where everyone is accepted. We are committed to helping players fully understand that certain words can lead to hateful ideologies being spread We will continue to work on identifying and combatting all hate speech wherever it arises.”
>Yet, Irving has been defiant about his postings. You can read his long, rambling, at times contradictory defense here. Mostly he reveals his lack of awareness of how history works. It’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet from which you can pluck just the dishes you like without any understanding of the context.
>His inability to understand why his posts are news can be seen in this statement: “There’s things being posted every day. I’m no different from the next human being, so don’t treat me any different. You guys come in here and make up this powerful influence that I have (and say) you cannot post that. Why not? Why not?” If he really thinks someone with millions of followers spouting hate speech is the same as Jim in accounting posting on Facebook, then he really is out of step with reality.
>The Nets finally forced Irving to acknowledge the damage he’s done and donate $500,000 to groups opposing hate speech. In his statement you can almost hear his arm being twisted: “I oppose all forms of hatred and oppression and stand strong with communities that are marginalized and impacted every day. I am aware of the negative impact of my post towards the Jewish community and I take responsibility.” But there was no explicit apology—which tells us everything about what he really believes.
>Honestly, there’s little hope that he will change because he’s insulated by fame and money and surrounded by yes-people. There is no motivation to learn how to distinguish propaganda from facts. All that’s left is for the world to decide how it should respond to him.
>Kareem Note: The problem of antisemitism is much bigger than Irving or Ye. They are merely the unwitting spokesperson for the right-wing political movement that is blatantly taking over the GOP. (For the full story, read “Jewish leaders call on GOP candidates to reject antisemitic comments”). Many Republican candidates running for some of the most powerful positions in their states and in the country—such as Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano—feel perfectly free to publicly spout antisemitic statements without fear of reprisal from their own party or the voters. That should be a very troubling sign for all marginalized groups because fascists always start by demonizing one group—right before they go after the others.
[Source](https://kareem.substack.com/p/shaq-kyrie-irving-idiot-has-twitter)
by urfaselol
31 Comments
> I couldn’t be prouder of Shaq, Charles, and Reggie for their bold and straightforward comments.
One person is deservedly missing
NBA HOFers: “Despicable”
NBPA: “What’s all the fuss is about?”
Times have changed apparently.
The amount of people who made excuses for this guy every step of the way is crazy. It was hilarious seeing Nets fans calling Celtics fans bitter after we warned them.
It’s absolutely true. If he woke up tomorrow and everyone agreed with him he wouldn’t be a contrarian again and say they’re wrong. He 100% believes this shit and he will never change.
This is the quote at the root of Kanye and Kyrie’s controversial posts: from the movie
>”Remember, Abraham’s religion was Islam. Abraham wasn’t a Jew, Abraham wasn’t a Christian, Abraham wasn’t a Buddhist, Abraham was a Muslim, which means he obeyed God… Who is the seed of Abraham? Is it this blue-eyed, blond-haired, pale-skinned Jew? Or is it the so-called Negro — you? Who is it? And what makes it so pitiful, many of our people would rather believe that the Jews are God’s Chosen People than to believe that they are God’s Chosen People. They would rather believe that the Jew is better than anybody else.
>This is a Negro. Nobody else would put everybody else above him but the Negro. I mean the American Negro. Remember, God said that the people would be strangers. The Jews aren’t strangers. The Jews know their history, the Jews know their culture, the Jews know their language; they know everything there is to know about themselves. They know how to rob you, they know how to be your landlord, they know how to be your grocer, they know how to be your lawyer, they know how to join the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and become the president -right or wrong? They know how to control everything you’ve got.
[Malcolm X’s sermon, “A Black man’s history”](https://news.acdemocracy.org/malcolm-xs-compilation-of-anti-jewish-statements/)
Kareem doing the ultimate dunking by saying Kyrie Irving is a lost cause… and rightfully so. He is enabled to keep believing he is some “beacon of light” that getting him to admit wrong and/or change beliefs is next to impossible
The biggest issue besides his anti-Semitic remarks is that he legit thinks he’s being attacked unfairly.
Kareem stacking Ws this week
Ah, a fellow Kareem Substack subscriber.
Kareem dropping skyhooks yet again on everyone making excuses for Kyrie and all the fake “victims” who share Kyrie’s views
I’ve been waiting for the media to call Kyrie out on this a lot more for his actions in the media lately. Kyrie has lived in a bubble his entire life filled with people telling him exactly what he wants to hear and being afraid to speak out against any of his bull shit beliefs.
He doesn’t care about what people on the internet have to say to him. He’s a superstar millionaire athlete, to him anybody on the internet that calls him out for his shit is just a loser/online faceless hater to him, it carries no weight to him. The media highlighting this more to get Kyrie to self realize.
Kareem don’t miss
Even the media is ‘yes man’ing him. Just straight up say “you’re not Jewish” to the man and see wtf he does. This man thinks he’s Jewish, like that needs to be called out more then it is.
Yeah Kyrie is a lost cause. He’s not going to apologize or change. Either you tolerate his BS, fully aware that you are okay with the negative real world consequences of enabling a clown who is promoting anti-semitism, the flat earth myth, and vaccine skepticism, or you quarantine him from the NBA.
False prophets
Kareem is so good at getting his point and perspective across. I hope this gets more widely distributed.
Kareem is spot on. When someone thinks they are provably genetically superior to other races, they are so long gone. Kyrie has a very low IQ and can go fuck himself with his bigotry
Kareem is what Kyrie wants to be, he just can’t find a cause to stand up for.
“What a martyr craves more than anything is a sword to fall on”
For what little I can do. I will never wear my Kyrie jersey again. At this point, his off court behaviour has truly overshadowed his accomplishments on the court. He does not deserve any acknowledgement.
Common Kareem W
Damn straight to the point
Kyrie reminds me if so many people you hear about that are like “I’ve never followed history or politics then I found this youtube channel…”
Usually it’s pretty smart people that end up believing that Biden is a lizard person in human skin but they are also ignorant and a blank slate when they fall down rabbit holes.
Weird how the Nets are actually getting attendance. I’d wipe my ass with the ticket rather than support this racist little shit.
common kareem W
Kyrie Irving is set to become an unrestricted free agent next year.
… What teams would be dumb enough to sign him at this point?
Aside from the off-court headaches, when was the last time he made a franchise better by him being on the roster?
So articulate and clear.
Kylie thinks he’s Kareem.
It will be a really really sad day when Kareem is no longer with us, he really is so fucking brilliant, eloquent and intelligent. It’s enlightening whenever he chooses to share his opinion on any matter because of how informed, and well thought out his arguments are. It’s a shame fucking Kyrie Irving even has a mic to speak to
This guy should be the president of the NBA players Union, and come down hard on idiots w/in spouting their nonsense.
W for Kareem reminding people less than one week from the election that the GOP are also apologists for this stuff.
Jim in accounting catching strays
This is why Tim Hardaway should get much more praise after his homophobic rant in 2007. He worked on himself and with the gay community to become a much better person.