Kyrie Irving Suspended: 'Unfit to be Associated With Brooklyn Nets'

Kyrie Irving will be suspended for a minimum of five games.

© Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

The Brooklyn Nets have officially suspended Kyrie Irving. Not only that, but they released an incredibly strong press release, condemning his inability to apologize for tweeting about a movie that contained strong antisemitic remarks. The decision seemed to be further catalyzed by Irving's insistence not to apologize during Thursday's media session.

The Nets' statement reads as follows:

"Over the last several days, we have made repeated attempts to work with Kyrie Irving to help him understand the harm and danger of his words and actions, which began with him publicizing a film containing deeply disturbing antisemitic hate. We believed that taking the path of education in this challenging situation would be the right one and thought that we had made progress with our joint commitment to eradicating hate and intolerance.

We were dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material in the film. This was not the first time he had the opportunity - but failed - to clarify.

Such failure to disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity to do so is deeply disturbing, is against the values of our organization, and constitutes conduct detrimental to the team. Accordingly, we are of the view that he is currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets. We have decided that Kyrie will serve a suspension without pay until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct and the suspension period served is no less than five games."

The wording in the statement is incredibly strong, even stating that Kyrie Irving is "unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets." While it states that Irving is going to be suspended for a minimum of five games, it's hard to tell if it'll be even longer. A simple apology would have avoided this entire scenario, and now the dominoes have fallen in a much grander way.