Op-Ed: Because of Kyrie Irving, The NBA Needs to Draw a Line in the Sand and Actually Live Up to Its Supposed Values

By: Zachary Draves

The exhausting, excruciating, and exceedingly endless drama that Kyrie Irving has brought to the NBA has fueled so much discussion around some legitimate and pressing issues. Specifically, bigotry, Anti-Semitism, and free speech. All of which meet our current political and cultural moment. In light of Irving’s five game suspension and Nike subsequently dropping their sponsorship with him due to his recent Anti-Semintic and conspiratorial posts on social media as well as his noticeable inconsistency in taking any real accountability, there is another issue that needs to be brought into this conversation.

(Courtesy: Corey Sipkin)

The NBA is not living up to its supposed progressive values.

For the last ten years, dating back to the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida when players like LeBron James spoke up for him and his family, the NBA ostensibly was categorized as a progressive sports league on social issues. In some ways under the leadership of Commissioner Adam Silver beginning in 2014, players, coaches, and other league members have felt a renewed sense of comfort and empowerment to speak up, raise awareness, and get involved in causes that are near and dear to them without the fear of penalization. Issues around racial justice, police brutality, gun violence, and voting have been front and center during this time.

Obviously the culmination of this trajectory was the summer of 2020. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the ensuing movement for mass social reform saw the NBA invested in ways never before seen. League figures attended at protests, participated in voter education and registration initiatives, and the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic famously boycotted playoff games in the bubble in Orlando after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

(Courtesy: Kyle Hightower/Associated Press)

It really seemed as though the NBA was practicing what they preached. That there was some level of consistency. That they had turned a corner from the days of David Stern when outspoken players such as Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul Rauf were rendered into exile.

However, on the issue of Kyrie Irving, they turned the ball over so to speak.

Their original reluctance to act once his tweets circulated and gained traction was very similar to the way in which they treated now former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver. After a thorough investigation found incidents of racism and sexism in the workplace under his watch, the NBA responded in a rather laissez-faire way to put it lightly.

The NBA’s official statement included that there was “no finding that Sarver’s workplace misconduct was motivated by racial or gender-based animus.” Then when asked by reporters for clarification, Silver essentially gave Sarver the benefit of the doubt based on previous hiring practices.

None of which makes any sense considering that Sarver defiantly said that he “disagree with some of the particulars of the NBA’s report” when he announced that he was selling his share of the team. It was only after players like James and Chris Paul spoke up and demanded more action that Sarver was out.

So one would think that the NBA would have learned from that debacle and lay down the law when it came to Irving’s actions. But they didn’t do that and it only took public pressure for them to hand Irving what he ultimately got coming to him and the same holds true for Nike.

(Courtesy: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Now it is becoming even more difficult for the NBA to be considered as a forward-thinking institution that consistently gets it right on issues around equality.

The players, coaches, executives, and front office need to make up their minds and truly define who they are. What do they actually stand for? What are their values? Who are they trying to impress? Are they inadvertently gonna fester an environment where guys like Kyrie Irving may play off Michael Jordan’s words and say Alex Jones buys sneakers too?

Against the backdrop of their recent political and social involvement, that runs completely incongruent.

Now of course the NBA should reach as broad of an audience as possible regardless of background or political belief. But those beliefs should be rooted in sanity and reality. Anyone engaging in bigotry (Racism, Sexism, Anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia, Homophobia, Transphobia, Ableism, etc.) and legitimizing dangerous conspiracy theories (Holocaust denial, COVID vaccine, election denial, globalism, etc.) has no place in our national discourse let alone in sports.

Saying that seems like a tiresome cliche but at the very least it sets a proper and competent tone.

Sports can either bring out the best or worst in us. It is our choice to see sport as a space of social and cultural solidarity or a cesspool swarming with the dregs of society.

Kyrie Irving has made it clear what he stands for. Hey NBA, what about you?