Nike part ways with NBA star Kyrie Irving after anti-Semitic row
Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets takes the ball downfield during the fourth quarter of the game against the Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center on November 1, 2022 in New York City. Dustin Satloff/Getty Images/AFP
Kyrie Irving’s multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with Nike is over, the sportswear company said Monday, after the basketball megastar got embroiled in an anti-Semitic row.
The tie-up, worth around $11 million to the athlete, was one of the largest in the world of sports, and its dissolution comes as companies come under increasing pressure over the views of their star signatures.
“Kyrie Irving is no longer a Nike athlete,” a company spokesperson told AFP in a one-line email.
The sponsorship deal was thrown into doubt in October after the Brooklyn Nets point guard posted a link to the film ‘Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America’ – a 2018 film widely condemned for containing a range of anti-Semitic tropes.
Despite public pressure put on him by the NBA team, Irving refused to apologize and was suspended for eight games, losing millions of dollars in salary.
In early November, Nike announced that it was suspending its relationship with Irving and retiring the “Kyrie 8” shoe which was due to be released last month.
Anyone who’s even spent their hard earned money on anything I’ve ever posted, I consider you FAMILY and we’re connected forever.
it’s time to show how powerful we are as a community.🤞🏾♾
— Hey (@KyrieIrving) December 5, 2022
Irving took to Twitter on Monday, responding to a reporter who wrote about Nike’s breakup with a GIF of the words “Let the party begin.”
Hours later, he also posted, “Anyone who even spent their hard earned money on anything I’ve ever posted, I consider you FAMILY and we’re forever connected. Time to show how much we are powerful as a community.
Following his first job, Irving was removed from the Nets’ roster, with the team citing his “failure to disavow anti-Semitism” either on social media or in meetings with reporters.
In an interview a few weeks later, he insisted that he was not anti-Semitic.
“I really want to focus on the harm I’ve caused or the impact I’ve had within the Jewish community, putting some kind of threat, or perceived threat, on the Jewish community,” he said. Irving told SportsNet New York.
“I just want to deeply apologize for all my actions for the time that has passed since the post was first posted.”
Irving, whose deal with the Nets is worth $37 million a year, did not play home games with the team for the first few months of 2022 because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
New York City workplace rules at the time mandated vaccinations for employees.
FILE– Detail of the Nike sneakers worn by Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets during the second half of the 2022 Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Barclays Center on April 12, 2022 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Sarah Stier/Getty Images/AFP
The Nets initially said he wouldn’t be allowed back on the team until he could play full-time, but later relented and he was selected for road games. .
News of Irving’s split from Nike comes days after Kanye West doubled down on his fierce anti-Semitism, using a three-hour appearance on the InfoWars feed to proclaim his “love” for Nazis and his admiration for Adolf Hitler.
West has seen several multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals — including one with Adidas — evaporate as his comments about Jewish people have grown increasingly outlandish.
West was joined on the show by Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist he had been invited to dinner with at Mar-A-Lago by former President Donald Trump a week earlier.
Trump’s tenure in the White House has been marked by increased reports of racist attacks and the open display of racial hate symbols, including among his own supporters.
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