Charles Barkley says the NBA flubbed its handling of the most recent Kyrie Irving drama … explaining Tuesday night he believes the league should’ve suspended the Nets star over his controversial tweet.
Barkley didn’t mince words while talking about the situation on “Inside the NBA” — calling Irving an “idiot” … and blasting the Association for not dropping the hammer on the point guard.
“I think Adam [Silver] should have suspended him,” Barkley said. “First of all, Adam is Jewish — you can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion. You gonna insult me, you have the right, but I have the right to say, ‘You can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion.'”
“I think the NBA, they made a mistake.”
Of course, Silver did not level punishment on Irving … despite the basketball player tweeting out a link to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a movie packed with antisemitic rhetoric.
Kyrie Irving Pushes Back on Antisemitic Labels After Promoting Movie
Irving never apologized for sharing it … and, in fact, two days after sending the tweet, he got into a tiff with a reporter who had suggested he had been “promoting” the film on his platform.
Irving did, though, eventually take down the tweet. He also said in a separate tweet he is not antisemitic.
But, Barkley’s co-host, Shaq, had issues with it all as well … calling Irving an “idiot” too.
Meanwhile, during TNT’s broadcast of the Nets vs. Bulls game … Reggie Miller, who was commentating the game, said he was disappointed there was not a vocal outcry from players in the league over it all.
The Nets have not yet made Irving available to the media since his testy Saturday press conference — with Brooklyn GM Sean Marks saying Tuesday night he wanted to let “cooler minds prevail” before handing over the mic to the 30-year-old again.
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