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Jaylen Brown, who is a VP with the NBPA, believes “it’s time for a larger conversation” now that Kyrie Irving continues to miss games beyond his minimum five-game suspension that was issued by the Brooklyn Nets following his decision to link to an antisemitic documentary.

Joe Tsai told a local reporter Irving “still has a lot of work to do” to get back onto the basketball court. Brown quote-tweeted the report and called it alarming for multiple reasons.

“He didn’t say that the organization was working together to get Kyrie back on the floor. He said that he had more work to do,” Brown said Monday night. “And our society has more work to do.”

“Including Joe Tsai,” Brown continued. “It’s 2022. It takes 10 minutes of time to see who these business owners, corporations, etc., who they’re associated with and who they’re doing business with, who they’re affiliated with.”

Nike founder Phil Knight said Irving “stepped out of line” by sharing the film on his social media channels.

Brown responded to Knight’s quote, tweeting: “Since when does Nike care about ethics?”

“I’m vice president of the union, and it’s part of my job to protect our players legally, Brown said Monday night. “And to see Phil Knight first come out and condemn Kyrie, and also see Joe Tsai say he has more work to do, I think it’s time for a larger conversation.”

Brown said Irving is in a gray area because he posted the link to the controversial film without any caption.

“I think it’s uncharted territory,” Brown said. “I think it’s no distinction between what somebody says vs. what somebody posts, and I guess that’s what they are trying to figure out. The terms that the Brooklyn Nets instituted for his return, I voiced my discomfort.

“It’s still an indefinite suspension, he’s already missed five or six games, so how many games is he going to continue to miss? Is it another situation going on there? Is it a larger situation going on there, is it a larger conversation that needs to be had? We’ve yet to find out.”

Brown suggested Irving might not be willing to apologize more than he already has.

“I’m not sure if [showing contrition] is something that Kyrie is looking to do,” Brown said. “I don’t think he meant any harm by posting it. Obviously, it came off as insensitive to a lot of people, but Adam [Silver] came out with a statement: He doesn’t believe Kyrie Irving is antisemitic,” Brown said. “Joe Tsai came out and said a statement that they don’t believe he is antisemitic. Those are their words, so he has already apologized formally through his IG post.

“But the comment that Joe Tsai made, which I feel like bothered a lot of people was like, ‘He has more work to do.’ Like, what does that mean? Our society has more work to do, including Joe Tsai. So I’m curious to know what that is, what that means.”

Via Kristian Winfield/New York Daily News

Good on the union. Tsai is overstepping for some curious reason.

This guy is putting himself out there and walking a very thin line.

Good for him.

Let the conspiracy spreader, kyrie, rot.

alienpick wrote:Good on the union. Tsai is overstepping for some curious reason.

Nah, Kyrie got himself canceled, and Tsai is doing what needs to be done to protect Kyrie and the Nets.

Kyrie is a clown and a moron, but Brown hast a very valid standpoint here. The billionaires have - quite literally speaking - blood on their hands and bullying and/or canceling a basketball player for some stupid **** is outrageous.

It doesn't matter what hte conditions of his return are, he's not going to meet them, because he doesn't want to play basketball, and now he can do that and blame people "holding him down." Perfect situation for Kyrie.

NO-KG-AI wrote:It doesn't matter what hte conditions of his return are, he's not going to meet them, because he doesn't want to play basketball, and now he can do that and blame people "holding him down." Perfect situation for Kyrie.

It does matter what the conditions are in a collective bargaining, which the NBA is.

This opens the door for an Owner to suspend a player without pay for anything. What if a player likes a pro-abortion link and the Owner is anti-abortion, the Owner can make it a stipulation that the player has to attend counseling before being able to play.

The question is here are the Nets operating within the collective agreement?

Cmon folks we have a new team to start up in Mexico City. We don't want these types of things going on over there either lets just sweep Tsai, Sliver & Kyrie & their personal crusades/ political messaging under the bus for a minute & lets concentrate on the game of basketball

After thinking this through this is simply Kyrie passively aggressing the Nets owner, coaching, and FO. Harden saw it coming a mile away. Kyrie has been defiant since day one and it started when he dismissed the coach. Nets recognized that and brought in Harden as insurance and Kyrie took that personally. He started finding reasons to miss games and not play consistently. Then Durant signed a max and they balked at Kyrie’s probably explaining he needs to be accountable before any long term extension is on the table. Covid came and Kyrie passively aggressed again by refusing to get vaccinated after the team clearly believed he would. He started holding private practices to thumb the coaching. Harden had enough, he went there to play with the big three and played a whopping 16 games together. Kyrie in the off-season demanded a max and again was told to prove it. He then started refusing to follow Nash’s play calls, 10 times in one game. Then came the platform display. He knew exactly what he posted would become a media disaster, he didn’t get his way and he is nuking the franchise for it. He is the most selfish person I have ever seen. Masquerading behind an “enlightened” backdrop, this guy is purely toxic. Any team taking him on is in trouble, he has issues with any authority figure due to his delusional belief the system is oppressive to his group of followers. Has nothing to do with basketball anymore, and in his case, I don’t think it ever has.

The only thing worse than being an idiot, is defending one.

Good on the Union. Impressive to see Jaylen Brown take his job seriously as a union rep. This is going a bit far considering the circumstances and I don't think th NBA wants to go down the road of having a larger conversation on this issue.

I could be wrong but this seems to be about a slave being defiant! How dare you not take the vaccine! How dare you try to find knowledge of self or who your natural enemy is. Every living creature in this world has a natural enemy. The Most High has a natural enemy.

If anything the anger should be geared toward amazon platform but it's not. Why? Is it because the NBA is planning to do business with Amazon?

The Nets are allowed to hold Kyrie out of games. The Players Union is arguing he should be getting PAID for it. The crux is that Kyrie's contract is guaranteed. Guidelines for suspension (which are unpaid) are outlined in the CBA.

Contracts are guaranteed, not optional. That's where the slippery slope is. It sets a precedent and the owners will continue moving the goalposts if they're allowed to.

TheCage4 wrote:The only thing worse than being an idiot, is defending one.

It seems like you may be defending more than one. How does that fit in your equation?

Rip32 wrote:I could be wrong but this seems to be about a slave being defiant! How dare you not take the vaccine! How dare you try to find knowledge of self or who your natural enemy is. Every living creature in this world has a natural enemy. The Most High has a natural enemy.

If anything the anger should be geared toward amazon platform but it's not. Why? Is it because the NBA is planning to do business with Amazon?

It is giving off a bit of that vibe isn't it? I don't agree with the stance that we have "natural enemies" within our own species based on some kind of genetic or tribal affinity, but if someone holds that opinion in private, it's none of my business, nor anyone else's really.

I wonder whether Jaylen thinks part of the "larger conversation" should be to consider what was done to Donald Sterling and Robert Sarver.

arasu wrote:

Rip32 wrote:I could be wrong but this seems to be about a slave being defiant! How dare you not take the vaccine! How dare you try to find knowledge of self or who your natural enemy is. Every living creature in this world has a natural enemy. The Most High has a natural enemy.

If anything the anger should be geared toward amazon platform but it's not. Why? Is it because the NBA is planning to do business with Amazon?

It is giving off a bit of that vibe isn't it? I don't agree with the stance that we have "natural enemies" within our own species based on some kind of genetic or tribal affinity, but if someone holds that opinion in private, it's none of my business, nor anyone else's really.

RE: "if someone holds that opinion in private"

What part of anything Kyrie Irving does has been private?

He engages combatively with the media constantly about his fringe beliefs -- flat earth, vaccine, anti-semitism etc -- I doubt he's the only idiot among the 500 NBA players, but he's for sure one of the most visible and vocal idiots, one of the highest paid (by highly-valued brands that will protect their image), and one of the least available on-court.

I don't see much racism here. Myers Leonard got the boot. Donald Sterling got the boot. This is just how corporate values work. Irving is falling victim to his own choices.

Talented knuckleheads have talked/played themselves out of a roster/job/the league plenty of times before.

Whenever headache/injury exceeds production on-court and/or dollars produced off-court, it ends fast. For anyone.

Thinking back off-the-cuff: Arenas, Iverson, Francis, Marbury, Baron Davis, Larry Sanders, Melo (briefly), Kanter etc... all lost their mins and/or jobs entirely, at least 3, 4, 5 years sooner than was necessary.

Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons are very likely the next items added to this never ending list

Should the league ban Tsai for his China relationship?

Kyrie can be a clown and Jaylen Brown can be right. Where is the measuring stick between Anthony Edwards clearly slandering and using epithets against gay people minding their own business, Rondo calling a gay guy a f---ot on the court, and Kyrie sharing a clown world film that makes insane claims and is clearly meant as anti-Semitic porn.

The NBA and Nike sell into an authoritarian regime that murders dissenters, persecutes minorities into near slavery and is the leading polluter on Earth by more than double (for all you climate justice lovers).