“You have to be careful with what you’re posting” NBPA President CJ McCollum reveals his thoughts on SUSPENDED Kyrie Irving’s situation
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Kyrie Irving‘s social media post about an anti-Semitic movie and the ensuing controversy can serve as a learning experience for all athletes. According to New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum, who is also the president of the National Basketball Players Association. On Saturday night, after the Pelicans’ defeat to the Atlanta Hawks, McCollum delivered his first remarks on Irving to the general public. McCollum mentioned that he has been gathering information about Kyrie’s situation before he could give his statement out.
Speaking to the media McCollum remarked, “You have to be careful with what you’re posting. You have to know exactly what it is, and you have to research and educate yourself on all religions and all backgrounds and all races so that you are comfortable speaking to that.” Speaking of Irving’s apology McCollum said, “He’s displayed empathy now. I think this is a learning experience in which I don’t think he understood the magnitude of the movie because he didn’t watch it. I don’t think he understood the magnitude of the people that were affected, how they were impacted and how fast hate can spread and how this can snowball.”
Since Irving’s post went up, McCollum claimed to have had discussions with the NBA at various points in the process. Moreover, he said that as president of the NBPA, he hadn’t made a remark on it since he was still collecting information. “It’s safe to say that we know that Kyrie and all of us — me specifically, I can speak for myself — specifically condemn antisemitism in any form,” McCollum said. “I am specifically against it. I specifically believe in promoting equality, diversity of inclusion.”
CJ McCollum speaking about all of it being a learning experience also said: “The important thing to learn about this situation is you have a platform. You have to be careful with how you use it. You have to vet everything you post. I think this is a situation we can all use as a learning experience for all of us as players…”
Nets’ conditions for Kyrie Irving and CJ McCollum thoughts on recent NBA anti-Semitism chaos
The Brooklyn Nets have suspended Kyrie Irving for at least five games without payment. This came after Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, publicly expressed his dissatisfaction and Irving made multiple attempts to retract his promotion of the movie and denounce antisemitism. Moreover, in order to return to the team, according to Shams Charania, Irving must fulfill six requirements issued by the Brooklyn Nets. The conditions are the following;
- Apologize and condemn the film he promoted
- Make a $500,000 donation to anti-hate causes
- Complete sensitivity training
- Complete anti-Semitism training
- Meet with the ADL and Jewish leaders
- Meet with team owner Joe Tsai to demonstrate an understanding of the situation
NBPA president CJ McCollum talked to the media and was very open about his views on the incident. Speaking about the Kyrie situation McCollum remarked, “First of all, condemning antisemitism is important… I believe in social justice, not just for Black people but for everyone. This is a social justice issue. This is a social justice situation that is continuing to be addressed. I think now we’re heading in the direction of addressing it appropriately”, added McCollum. Earlier McCollum also took his time in speaking about Robert Sarver and the allegations surrounding racism and misogyny surrounding the Phoenix Suns.
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