Kyrie Irving’s Suspension Is Ending, But We Still Need an Explanation For Its Length

It might be coming to an end, but we still need to talk about the length of Kyrie Irving’s suspension.

On November 3rd, Kyrie Irving was given a suspension of a minimum of five games. He missed

The reason for the suspension is that he had posted a link to a documentary that made the case that African Americans were of Hebrew heritage, and that the reason that’s not common knowledge is that there has been a century’s long cover-up that includes exaggerating the Holocaust. 

It was definitely something that Kyrie Irving needed to clarify, and when given the opportunity, it became clear to any honest observer that the only information that Kyrie had retained from this so-called documentary is the overall concept of black people in America having a much richer history than just being the descendants of slaves, and that he felt no need to apologize.

I’ve talked before about the factors that make people like Kyrie Irving search for meaning in their ancestry, and even got into the fact that as an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, there are millions of white Americans that actually do believe that the Book of Mormon teaches Irving’s heritage goes back to lost Israelite tribes. 

The backlash has never been about whether anyone believes they have Ancient Hebrew Heritage. The backlash was about whether Kyrie believed the anti-Semitic tropes presented by the film, and whether there has been a Jewish conspiracy to keep black people down.

That particular unanswered question might have justified Kyrie’s initial suspension, but Nets owner Joe Tsai said that he’s met with Kyrie and his family, and that ” it’s clear… that Kyrie does not have any beliefs of hate towards Jewish people or any group.”

Well if it’s so clear, why wasn’t Kyrie Irving back on the court right away?

According to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, “Whether or not Kyrie Irving is antisemitic is not relevant to the damage caused by the posting of hateful content.”

Maybe Adam Silver is right here, but his own track record in this area makes Kyrie’s continued suspension at the hands of the Nets seem rather excessive. 

Back in 2011, the NBA dropped a $100,000 hammer on Kobe Bryant for shouting a gay slur at at a referee. Kobe was allowed to apologize and make it clear that what he said was not a reflection of his feelings toward the gay community. David Stern was commissioner at the time. 

After Adam Silver took over as commissioner, Rajon Rondo did the same thing, calling a referee a gay slur in a much more aggressive manner. That official responded by publicly coming out of the closet as gay in an effort to help NBA players realize the impact of their words. And on top of that, Rajon Rondo lied about what he said, and only apologized on Twitter after witnesses and video review showed that Rondo was lying. 

Rondo received a one-game suspension amounting to an $86,000 fine. 

Kyrie is seven games and almost $500,000 deep in fines, has offered another $500,000 to the anti-defamation league, and is going to lose out on tens of millions of dollars in Nike endorsement deals

And in the words of Joe Tsai, does not hate Jewish people OR ANY GROUP.

The suspension was objectively excessive. It was historically excessive. And at the end of the day, it’s all because Kyrie Irving watched a documentary that it’s extremely clear he didn’t comprehend, and posted a link to it without context. 

Look, if a baseball pitcher posted a link to a place where he bought a “I love the KKK” t-shirt, we’d all be demanding answers. But if the answer was earnestly that he’s not racist, but instead that he’s just a little bit dumb and thought the K’s stood for strikeouts, how much punishment would be necessary before he was allowed to take the mound again?

The longer this suspension went on, the more backlash Adam Silver and Joe Tsai are risked. LeBron James has already called for Kyrie Irving’s reinstatement. NBPA president Jaylen Brown has taken it a step further, publicly blasting Nike and pointing out that Joe Tsai’s investment in companies that supply China with the technological means to spy on, and ultimately persecute, it’s Uygher Muslim population.

Influential players being willing to take on both of the NBA’s traditionally bulletproof untouchables- Nike and China, to get Kyrie Irving back on the court, is something I guarantee no one has a plan to handle.

It’s as simple as this- once it was determined that the comments cam from a place of ignorance and not malice, they should have immediately let Kyrie play, and do the work of learning about the very real history of the persecution of the Jewish people while on the court. 

Let that sink in.

Hot Takes House 5: College Football, NFL, Rae Carruth, Rondo, CP3 Fight, Pac-12

Hot Takes House 5

The Hot Takes House 5 is open for business. These are hot takes and fun from the weekend. Send us your hot takes to ImMad@unafraidshow.com, and they may make the next week piece. Do not read any further if you are easily offended.

Hope you enjoy Hot Takes House 5. See you next Monday! Send us your hot takes to ImMad@unafraidshow.com, and they may make the next week post.

FUN FACT: Movie trailers were originally shown after movies, which is why they were called “trailers.” (Only problem ways people wouldn’t stay to see them)

1. Rule #1 Don’t let your mouth write checks your ass can’t cash.

My dad used to say that all the time. It has proved to be sage advice in my life. This guy clearly didn’t get the memo!

2. I was encouraged about the toughness of NBA players after the Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul, and Brandon Ingram Fight.

For over a decade NBA players would have dustups but nobody ever really wanted to fight. Guy just wanted to make people believe they would fight even when they wouldn’t. Chris Paul, Rondo, and Ingram brought back the NBA of old back to the court.

We never want to see fighting in the games. However, some things are worthy of a fight. Under no circumstances can you spit on somebody and not expect to get not to get in a fight. I never condone my sons fighting as an early measure of problem-solving. However, if somebody spits in my kid’s face, he has dad’s blessing to whoop his ass! And if my son got spit on and did nothing, he and I have a serious problem.

3. One of the most humbling things in sports is the “Walk of Shame” quarterbacks have to take back to the sideline after throwing a pick 6.

The quarterback knows everyone in the stadium and on national television is looking at him with disgust. The networks leave the camera on them the entire walk to the sideline. It’s like wathcing somebody walk home at 10am on Sunday morning in their Saturday night party outfit. Nobody on the team even looks or talks to the quarterback as he humbly passes by. He can just feel all the judgment upon him. Everyone is thinking, “You idiot. You just threw the game away.” There is some truth to this because elite quarterbacks do throw picks but rarely throw pick 6’s.

Every quarterback throws interceptions. However, there is a big difference between throwing an interception and throwing a pick that results in points for the other team.

Imagine the thoughts that go through Peterman, Bortles, Carr, and Keenum’s mind when they walk to the sideline. They have to wonder how many more times this can happen before they are benched.

The only “walk of shame that could rival a quarterback is a kicker who misses a chip shot or extra point to lose the game.

*Clears throat Washington Huskies vs. Oregon, Baltimore Ravens vs. New Orleans Saints.

4. Are the Jacksonville Jaguars delusional or self-sabotaging by continuing to act like Blake Bortles is going to get better?

The Jaguars have to give up hope that Blake Bortles is going to get better. He is the only thing standing between the Jaguars and a trip to the Super Bowl. Bortles lost another pair of fumbles Sunday. He has 26 games since the start of 2014 committing multiple turnovers, the most such games by any player in the NFL in that time. Even when he’s not throwing picks of fumbling, he struggles with accuracy.

Unbelievably, the team is not even considering a trade for a quarterback.

The Jaguars sat out the quarterback derby this offseason and extended Blake Bortles instead of going after Kirk Cousins or Alex Smith. They also could have traded for Teddy Bridgewater just like the Saints did.

5. The New York Giants made the same mistake the Jaguars did when they drafted Saquon Barkley instead of a quarterback.

The Jaguars passed on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson when they drafted Leonard Fournette. Now, they are in an untenable position. The New York Giants could have drafted, Darnold, Rosen, or any number of other quarterbacks to secure their future. Instead, they took a great running back, and can’t win football games.

The reality is that no matter how a running back is he does not impact winning and losing nearly as much as a quarterback. Look at how Todd Gurley’s season was when Jared Goff was bad as a rookie. The team lost, and Gurley’s stats were underwhelming. Now, Goff is playing well; the team is 6-0 and Gurley is an MVP candidate.

6. “This year’s Chiefs home playoff loss is going to be glorious. They are so talented and fun… but we all know how this ends.” -Doug Gottlieb

This take is hot as it comes, but there is no evidence in history to refute it. I love watching the Chiefs play. Mahomes is the most exciting player in the NFL. The combination of Mahones, Hill, and Hunt make the most explosive team in the league.

At this point, we know how good the Chiefs are in the regular season. We also know that the franchise has had a history of underachieving in the playoffs. They have only won one playoff game since 1993.

Unless Kansas City has turned over a new leaf, we will be seeing Tom Brady and the Patriots representing the AFC in the Super Bowl again.

7. When it comes to the College Football Playoffs, winning your conference and playing a good schedule is only relevant to non-SEC teams.

Danny White, Athletic director at UCF, has some thoughts on the College Football Playoff. He’s not wrong. The media creates a narrative that the committee just so happens to follow. Winning your conference and playing a good schedule is only relevant to non-SEC teams. The SEC has not been dominating college football. Alabama has been dominating everyone. They should charge the rest of the conference rent for how good they make the rest of them look.

The SEC gets pumped up as being so tough, but the reality is their non-conference schedules are extremely soft, and they only play eight conference games. The imbalance in college football schedules has been exploited by teams. Fans are the real losers in college football because there are only 12 regular season games, and so many are wasted on sub-par competition.

8. The parity in the PAC-12 North for 2018 is crazy. 4 of the 20 best teams in the country are in one division: Oregon, Washington, Washington State, and Stanford.

I challenge you to find a tougher division in college football. There is not one. Alabama looks unbeatable, but we have no idea how good Florida, Kentucky, and UGA are. The Big Ten has Michigan, Iowa, and Ohio State that look like top teams, but they don’t all play each other. Clemson is the lone top-tier ACC team. The Big XII has an impressive Oklahoma and Texas, but it drops off from there.

9. If Clay Helton gets fired, will coaches be lining up to leave their jobs to take the USC head coaching job? Is USC still a Top-5  job?

The last time the USC head coaching job was vacant coaches weren’t lining up to leave their current jobs to head to USC. The Trojans are a college football blue-blood, so they always have the potential to reemerge as a consistent top 5 team. The thing that further complicates the question is USC’s recruiting. The Trojan’s consistently land 5* recruits every year no matter the coach or their record. So why haven’t coaches shown an eagerness to leave their current jobs to coach at USC?

I don’t think USC is still a top 5 job, but it is a top 5 college football blue-blood. Right now, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Clemson, Georgia, and Michigan all seem like more desirable locations.

10. I saw Alabama do the most bush league thing I have ever seen a Nick Saban led team do. They gave Butch Jones a Gatorade bath after they beat the terrible Tennessee Vols.

Alabama came into the game favored by almost 30 points. There was nothing special or notable about the win. Before Tennessee beat Auburn in week 7, they hadn’t won an SEC game since Nov. 19, 2016. Is that really worth a Gatorade bath? It seems pretty pathetic considering Butch Jones built the current Tennessee team that is so bad right now.

What was there to celebrate for Alabama? Was it vindication for Jones? If so, how? Butch Jones was not treated unfairly or fired without cause from Tennessee. The program was in shambles, and the once proud Vols program is one of the worst in the SEC.

If I were Jones, I would have been extremely bothered by the sympathy Gatorade bath.

11. Rae Carruth is now out of jail after serving nearly 20 years surrounding the murder of the woman who was pregnant with his child, Rae Carruth Jr.

Charlotte paper has had a seven-day mega-article on the entire case. The prosecution offered all four defendants a plea deal down to 2nd-degree murder. The trigger-man, Van Bret Watkins took the deal. The jury had an issue with charging Rae with 1st when the guy who actually shot the gun was only going to get 2nd. Doesn’t make much sense to me, but that was their thinking per the article.

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