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    The Liberty Took a Few Jets and a Boat to Become a Superteam

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    Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai, the Liberty owners, improved their facilities and chartered flights, drawing a W.N.B.A. fine — and enticing top free agents.In January, Clara Wu Tsai flew to Turkey on a trip that altered the balance of power in the W.N.B.A.Wu Tsai, who owns the Liberty with her husband, Joe Tsai, went there to chase Breanna Stewart, the off-season’s most coveted free agent. Accompanied by her team’s coach and general manager, Wu Tsai pitched Stewart in the middle of her Euroleague season with a team in Istanbul.But Wu Tsai left the rest of the team’s brass behind as she made the final push. She rented an 80-foot tour boat and took Stewart, Stewart’s wife, Marta Xargay, and the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Ruby, for a cruise. Gliding through the Bosporus, Wu Tsai reeled in Stewart, the two-time league most valuable player, with questions.“It was just her curiosity that grabbed me,” Stewart told me during an interview this month. “She wanted to know what I needed, what we needed as players, to perform at our best. I could see she wanted to improve the league as much as I do.”After days of cryptic tweets, Stewart announced on Feb. 1 that she would join a Liberty roster that had also added Jonquel Jones, the 2021 league M.V.P., to play alongside guard Sabrina Ionescu, a 2022 All-Star. The four-time All-Star guard Courtney Vandersloot inked with the team the day after Stewart, forming a megateam built to contend with the defending champion Las Vegas Aces — a supersquad in its own right that added the two-time M.V.P. Candace Parker this off-season.“Having a lot of players go to different teams is great because it’s shaking things up where we’re not just in this continuous track, running over and over, playing for the same teams,” Stewart said. “It’s creating a buzz. But there’s something more. Free agency also adds pressure on the owners to compete for us.”The Tsais, whose multibillion dollar wealth comes primarily from Joe’s leadership role with the Chinese tech giant Alibaba, sit at the forefront of the W.N.B.A.’s free-agent arms race, where players enjoy the attention of a group of team owners eager to invest.The former league M.V.P.’s Breanna Stewart, left, and Jonquel Jones joined the Liberty in the off-season, as did the four-time All-Star guard Courtney Vandersloot.Sarah Gordon/The Day, via Associated PressIn Atlanta, the Dream’s Larry Gottesdiener, founder of a real estate private equity firm, said he planned to spend $100 million to turn the team into a success. Mark Davis, who also owns the N.F.L.’s Las Vegas Raiders, recently built a 64,000-square-foot training facility for the Aces and last season signed Coach Becky Hammon to a record contract worth $1 million annually. (On Tuesday, the W.N.B.A. suspended Hammon for two games for comments she made to the All-Star forward Dearica Hamby about her pregnancy, which the league said violated its policy on respect in the workplace. The league also rescinded the team’s 2025 for first-round draft pick for promising Hamby impermissible benefits during contract negotiations.)When the Tsais bought the Liberty in 2019, the team had bottomed out during the last stages of James Dolan’s ownership. The franchise had made the finals in three of the W.N.B.A.’s first four seasons but was pushed out of Madison Square Garden to the 2,300-seat Westchester County Center for 2017 and ’18.After moving the team to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which the Tsais own and where their other team — the N.B.A.’s Nets — also play, the couple set out to give the Liberty amenities equal to their male counterparts. There’s an eight-person performance staff — multiple trainers, a sports psychologist and a nutritionist. An in-house chef prepares meals before and after practices and games. Players recover in brand-new hot and cold therapy tubs.Like every other team in the W.N.B.A., the Liberty fly commercial to away games for most of the season. They huddle in cramped seats and endure delays, transfers and cancellations like the rest of us.Tsai bristled at the limitation. So in 2021, he paid for the Liberty to use private jets, then shielded that fact from the league until the team was caught. The result: a $500,000 fine, the biggest in league history. Perhaps not unrelated: In 2021, the Liberty made the playoffs for the first time in five years and then repeated that feat in 2022.The fine was steep, but a point was made by the Tsais, loud and clear: Travel conditions must evolve. For now, the league has settled on a partial change, allowing teams to charter flights for the playoffs and a small number of games during the regular season.It was a key point of agreement for Wu Tsai and Stewart during that nautical conversation. Stewart, a vice president of the players’ union, has also been one of the league’s most vocal proponents for chartered flights, a factor she said played into her free agency decision.Over coffee at a Manhattan restaurant in early May, Wu Tsai — a self-described “hoop head” who grew up in Lawrence, Kan. — said she sees in Stewart a kindred spirit. “It was clear our interests were aligned on the potential” for lifting the Liberty and changing the W.N.B.A., Wu Tsai said.Asked about the travel contretemps with the league, Wu Tsai paused, drew a breath, and measured her comments carefully. “I don’t think you can put your best product on the floor if you’re not really focused on health and wellness,” she said, declining to elaborate.The Tsais, it must be noted, have a complex history. Few team owners in any sport have given as much support to social justice, including $50 million to boost economically distressed communities following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. But Alibaba has been criticized for business ties with Chinese companies said to violate human rights in China. And Tsai once called pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong a “separatist movement,” echoing language from Beijing.The world of sports is hardly immune from contradiction.What can also be said of the Tsais is that support for how they are advancing conditions in the league is widespread among players. The charter planes issue is perhaps the most salient litmus test. Stewart, for one, would play only for a team that is doing all it can to push on the issue until it becomes a reality all season long.She is not alone.“Two things can be true at once,” Jones said. “You can look at it and see what they did with those charters as definitely an unfair advantage. And you also can step back and be like, ‘Wow, at least they were making sure their players were taken care of.’ The Tsais sent a signal, a strong signal, of how much this means to them.”“They treat us as the professionals we are.” More

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      How the Nets Fell Apart From the Top

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      Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have become the faces of their superteam’s failure, but the Nets leadership could have averted disaster several times, and didn’t.Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant didn’t trade themselves from the Nets.They didn’t hire Steve Nash to coach the team, even though he had no experience.They didn’t trade for — and then trade away — James Harden.They didn’t sign off on Irving playing only part-time because he would not get the coronavirus vaccine.As players, they couldn’t have done any of those things. But the team owner Joe Tsai and General Manager Sean Marks could. And they did.Over the past three and a half years, the Nets’ ambitious plans to form a championship-winning superteam have fallen apart in fits and starts, finally imploding over the past week with the trades of Irving and Durant. Those two superstars have become the faces of the collapse, but the rubble of the franchise may reveal that the problem extends to the foundation — to the people who had the power to avert disaster many times and never did.During a news conference on Thursday, Marks was asked whether he deemed the Durant and Irving era in Brooklyn a failure.“I think it would be easy to look in from the outside,” Marks said. “And, you know, honestly, I look at it internally and say, ‘Wow, it didn’t work.’ Like, let’s be honest there. We did not reach the full potential of where we thought we could get to.”‘We do have the pieces’In the summer of 2019, Durant and Irving spurned the Knicks and joined the Nets in free agency. Tsai, a billionaire co-founder of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba, assumed full control of the Nets and Barclays Center at a record-setting $2.35 billion team valuation. The Nets were primed to be not just the dominant basketball power in New York, but also in the N.B.A.“I think the fans expect that we win a championship,” Tsai said in a YES Network interview months later. “And the good thing is, I believe that we do have the pieces in place.”Few teams ever do, and the Nets, it’s now clear, didn’t either. But it wasn’t for one of the most common reasons — a cheap owner — since Tsai has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury tax penalties for his starry teams over the past three seasons.But he waffled on key decisions, signed aging veterans who were little help and tolerated behavior that eroded the team’s culture. He was more visible than most team owners, often sitting courtside at games and posting on Twitter in response to rumors about team drama. The N.B.A. has fined him for criticizing officiating on Twitter.Tsai also has been willing to use his financial muscle to help his players, even if it invited public criticism. He arranged for all of the Nets to be tested for the coronavirus early in the pandemic when tests were scarce for the general public, earning a rebuke from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. Tsai also owns the W.N.B.A.’s Liberty, and in 2021 the women’s league fined the team $500,000 for secretly chartering flights to games for the players. Tsai has been critical of the W.N.B.A. requirement that players fly on commercial airlines.But catering to players can backfire, as Tsai found out.Steve Nash won two Most Valuable Player Awards as an N.B.A. player, but he had no coaching experience when he was hired to coach the Nets in September 2020.Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports, via ReutersA coach with no experienceCoaching is typically considered a crucial piece for superstar-laden teams. Coaches must manage egos, maximize talent and manage workloads, all while winning basketball games. Only Golden State’s Steve Kerr has won a championship as a rookie head coach without having been an assistant coach first.But for the Nets superteam, Tsai and Marks decided their head coach would be Nash, who won two Most Valuable Player Awards as an N.B.A. player but had no coaching experience. They drew criticism for overlooking Jacque Vaughn, an experienced Black assistant coach, for Nash, who is white. The hiring, in September 2020, came at a time when only seven of the N.B.A.’s 30 team head coaches weren’t white. Most N.B.A. players are Black.But Nash and Marks were teammates on the Phoenix Suns, and Nash knew Durant because he consulted for Golden State when Durant played there.Irving almost immediately undermined Nash during an appearance on Durant’s podcast, saying: “I don’t really see us having a head coach. You know what I mean? K.D. could be a head coach. I could be a head coach.”While both expressed their respect for Nash, Irving’s comments indicated that the Nets would need structure and accountability, since Durant and Irving were already resisting the traditional hierarchy. For his part, Durant responded to Irving and called the partnership with Nash “a collaborative effort.” It was a glaring instance in which leadership experience might have made a difference. After Durant requested a trade over the summer, he described a culture on the Nets that seemed adrift.“I went to them and was like: ‘Yo, I don’t like how we are preparing. I don’t like shootarounds. I like practices. I need more,’” Durant told Bleacher Report in November.He added, “Hold me accountable.”The Nets fired Nash in November and hired Vaughn.Irving vs. TsaiNowhere were the cautionary signs for the Nets more clear than in the rift between Tsai and Irving. Irving declined to take the coronavirus vaccine as the 2021-22 season got underway, but Tsai was a vocal proponent of vaccines, telling ESPN that it wasn’t “a matter of belief” but rather a scientific “matter of fact.”Irving became a liability. He was not allowed to play in home games because of a local vaccine mandate, and he showed no signs of changing his mind. Tsai and Marks allowed him to become a distraction. First, they said he would not be allowed to play in road games either, citing the harm to the organizational culture of having him play only part-time. But just two months later, they changed their minds, even though Irving hadn’t changed his and the team was in first place in the Eastern Conference.It sent the message that Irving could play by his own rules.About a year earlier, the Nets acquired Harden from Houston by trading away promising young players. But soon after Irving was allowed to return, Harden stunned the Nets by asking for a trade. Harden later told reporters that Irving’s decision to not get vaccinated had a “very minimal” effect on his trade request, but he acknowledged that “it definitely did impact the team.”The Nets quickly acquiesced to Harden in February 2022 by trading him to the Philadelphia 76ers, the competitor of his choice, instead of riding out the season, since they were playing well, or giving themselves time to explore all of their options to be sure they were getting the best deal.In December, Harden told Fox Sports why he wanted out of Brooklyn.“It was just, there was no structure and even superstars, they need structure,” Harden said. “That’s what allows us to be the best players and leaders.”Four days after the Nets sent Harden to Philadelphia, one of the popular players they had traded away to get him from Houston — center Jarrett Allen — was named an All-Star with his new team in Cleveland.Days after trading Kyrie Irving, the Nets reached a deal to send Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns.Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via ReutersLast chanceEven after the Boston Celtics embarrassed the Nets last year by sweeping them in the first round of the playoffs, the Nets still had a shot to fulfill the promise of Durant and Irving this season. The Nets leadership attempted a culture reset — a public display that they would not be pushed around by stars anymore. When asked about Irving receiving a long-term extension, Marks demurred.“I think we know what we’re looking for,” Marks told reporters in May. “We’re looking for guys that want to come in here and be part of something bigger than themselves.”After Durant requested a trade in the off-season, Tsai tweeted support for the front office and coaching staff. A few weeks later in August, Durant backed off his request and Marks said the sides had “agreed to move forward with our partnership.”Then in October, when Irving refused to disavow antisemitism or apologize after posting a link to an antisemitic film on Twitter, Tsai publicly rebuked him and suspended him.Irving missed eight games. But when he returned, the Nets showed their tantalizing potential once again, going 18-2 in one stretch, only to unravel again as Durant got injured and Irving’s contract-extension talks fell apart and he asked to be traded.“I want to be in a place where I’m celebrated and not just tolerated or just kind of dealt with in a way that doesn’t make me feel respected,” Irving said Tuesday, a day after the Nets traded him to the Dallas Mavericks.Two days later, the Nets traded Durant, too, to Phoenix. “We believe making this trade now positions the franchise for long-term success,” Marks said Thursday in a statement.Marks, at a news conference Thursday, was asked what his message would be to Nets fans who expected to see a championship contender this year.“That’s honestly tough,” Marks said. “But my goal here and our goal is, from ownership all the way down, is to put something out on the floor that everybody can be proud of.” More

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      What to Know About Kyrie Irving’s Antisemitic Movie Post and the Fallout

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      Irving, the Nets guard, has faced backlash since he promoted an antisemitic film on social media last month.Nets guard Kyrie Irving is facing backlash for posting a link on Twitter to an antisemitic film last month.For a week, he declined to apologize or say that he held no antisemitic beliefs, prompting the Nets on Nov. 3 to suspend him indefinitely. He has since apologized, but the fallout continues: On Nov. 4, Nike condemned hate and antisemitism, and suspended its relationship with Irving immediately.Irving, a seven-time N.B.A. All-Star, has been with the Nets since 2019. He won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, but over the past few years he has often been discussed more for his off-court views. In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, he suggested that the Earth might be flat, and over the past year he had refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.Here is what you need to know.Here’s what you need to know:What did Irving post on Twitter?When did the backlash start?How did Irving respond?Why did the Nets suspend Irving?What did Irving say in his apology?Why did Nike cut ties with Irving after he apologized?Will Irving play for the Nets again?What did Irving post on Twitter?On Oct. 27, Irving tweeted a link to “Hebrew to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a 2018 film driven by antisemitic tropes about Jewish people lying about their origins. Among its false and outlandish claims is the assertion that the Holocaust never happened.Irving also made an Instagram post with a screenshot of the film’s rental page on Amazon, which he had linked to on Twitter. Neither post included a caption or comment from Irving.The Instagram post was part of a story, a format that expires after 24 hours; the tweet was deleted Oct. 30.In a letter dated Nov. 4, the Anti-Defamation League and the Nets called on Amazon to take down or add explanatory context to the film and a related book, writing that they were “designed to inflame hatred and, now that it was popularized by Mr. Irving, will lead directly to the harm of Jews.”When did the backlash start?On Oct. 28, Rolling Stone magazine reported on some of the film’s antisemitic messages. Many other news media outlets began reporting on the article and Irving’s tweet.That night, the Nets’ owner Joe Tsai posted about the situation on Twitter, adding that it was “bigger than basketball”:“I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation. I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”On Oct. 29, the N.B.A. released a statement condemning hate speech, but it did not name Irving. On Nov. 1, the N.B.A. players’ union, the National Basketball Players Association, issued a statement condemning antisemitism, but like the N.B.A., it did not name Irving, who is one of the union’s vice presidents.Antisemitism in AmericaAntisemitism is one of the longest-standing forms of prejudice, and those who monitor it say it is now on the rise across the country.Perilous Times: With instances of hate speech on social media and reported incidents on the rise, this fall has become increasingly worrisome for American Jews.Kanye West: The rapper and designer, who now goes by Ye has been widely condemned for recent antisemitic comments. The fallout across industries has been swift.Kyrie Irving: The Nets suspended the basketball player after he defended his support of an antisemitic movie. His behavior appalled and frightened many of his Jewish fans.Midterms: No major contest this year has been shaped by concerns of antisemitism more prominently than the Pennsylvania governor’s race.How did Irving respond?Irving addressed his posts publicly for the first time Oct. 29, after the Nets lost to the Indiana Pacers at Barclays Center. During a contentious news conference, Irving doubled down on his support of the film and an antigovernment conspiracy theory promoted by the Infowars host Alex Jones.“History is not supposed to be hidden from anybody,” Irving said. He added: “I’m not going to stand down on anything I believe in. I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”Irving accused an ESPN reporter of trying to “dehumanize” him as he and the reporter argued about whether Irving had “promoted” the film by posting about it.The Nets played the Pacers again Oct. 31 at Barclays Center and faced the Bulls in Chicago on Nov. 1, but the team did not make Irving available to reporters after either game. General Manager Sean Marks said the team did not “want to cause more fuss right now, more interaction with people.” (The Nets, who have struggled on the court, also fired their head coach, Steve Nash, on Nov. 1, but Marks said the move was not related to Irving’s situation.)On Nov. 2, Irving announced with the Anti-Defamation League that he would donate $500,000 to anti-hate causes. The Nets said they would do the same.“I am aware of the negative impact of my post towards the Jewish community and I take responsibility,” Irving said in a statement. “I do not believe everything said in the documentary was true or reflects my morals and principles.”Why did the Nets suspend Irving?Irving last played for the Nets in a Nov. 1 game against the Chicago Bulls. He scored just 4 points in 33 minutes.Dustin Satloff/Getty ImagesBy Nov. 3, Irving had not apologized, and he had not been clear about what content he disagreed with in the film. N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver said he would meet with Irving soon.“Kyrie Irving made a reckless decision to post a link to a film containing deeply offensive antisemitic material,” Silver said in a statement. He added: “I am disappointed that he has not offered an unqualified apology and more specifically denounced the vile and harmful content contained in the film he chose to publicize.”About 30 minutes after Silver’s statement, Irving spoke to reporters at a Nets practice: “I didn’t mean to cause any harm. I’m not the one that made the documentary.”When asked what specific points in the film he did not agree with, Irving responded vaguely. “Some of the criticism of the Jewish faith and the community, for sure,” he said. “Some points made in there that were unfortunate.”When Irving was asked if he had any antisemitic beliefs, he said he respected all walks of life. “I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from,” Irving said when he was asked to answer the question with a “yes” or “no.”Within hours, the Nets suspended him for at least five games, saying he was “unfit to be associated” with the team. “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,” the Nets said in a statement.“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.”Marks, the general manager, said Irving would need to meet with Jewish leaders, go through counseling and meet with the team, among other measures, before he would be allowed to return.What did Irving say in his apology?Hours after he was suspended Nov. 3, Irving apologized in an Instagram post, saying he “had no intentions to disrespect any Jewish cultural history regarding the Holocaust or perpetuate any hate.”“To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize.I initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled Anti-Semitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters that were hurt from the hateful remarks made in the Documentary.”Why did Nike cut ties with Irving after he apologized?Nike condemned antisemitism on Nov. 4 and suspended its relationship with Irving “effective immediately.” The company had produced his signature sneakers since 2014.Omar Rawlings/Getty ImagesIrving’s apology seemed to come too late for Nike, which suspended its relationship with him “effective immediately” on Nov. 4 and announced it would not launch his next signature sneaker, the Kyrie 8.“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company said in a statement. “We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”Nike had produced Irving’s popular signature sneaker line since 2014; his contract expires in October 2023. One marketing expert said brands have become more conscious about their values in recent years.Will Irving play for the Nets again?The Nets said his suspension would last at least five games, meaning he cannot return until at least Nov. 13, when the Nets face the Lakers in Los Angeles.Marks, the general manager, said Irving’s apology was a “step in the right direction” but “certainly not enough.” It’s not clear if Irving will agree to meet with Jewish leaders or fulfill other mandates from the team. He has not spoken publicly since his apology.Some fans may not be ready to welcome him back, if that time comes. More than one million Jews live in New York City, and roughly 60 percent are in Brooklyn, where the Nets play at Barclays Center on Atlantic Avenue.Ben Berke, a Nets fan who lives in Astoria, Queens, told The Times that Irving’s apology was an “improvement.”“But I don’t want him on the team anymore,” he said.Marks said Nov. 4 that the Nets had not considered dropping Irving from the team.Reporting was contributed by More

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      Nets Say Kyrie Irving’s Apology Isn’t Enough, and Nike Suspends Its Ties

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      Irving was suspended after he would not say he held no antisemitic beliefs. Nike suspended its relationship with him Friday.WASHINGTON — Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who was suspended indefinitely in the fallout of his social media posts promoting an antisemitic film, will have to meet with Jewish leaders and with the team before he can return to play, General Manager Sean Marks said Friday.The comments came a day after the team announced it had suspended Irving without pay for at least five games because he “refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs, nor acknowledge specific hateful material” in the film he posted about last week.“There is going to be some remedial steps and measures that have been put in place for him to, obviously, seek some counseling designated by the team,” Marks said, adding, “We’ll evaluate and see if this is the right opportunity to bring him back.”On Friday, Nike, which has produced Irving’s popular signature shoe since 2014, announced that it had suspended its relationship with him “effective immediately” and would not launch the next version of his shoe, the Kyrie 8.“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech, and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company said in a statement, adding, “We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”Last week, Irving posted a link on Twitter to an antisemitic film and posted a screenshot of the movie’s online rental page on Instagram. As fans, team leaders and even N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver called for Irving to apologize, Irving resisted until after he was suspended Thursday.“I think we started this off by trying to work through an education piece to this and educate all parties involved,” Marks said. “That obviously did not work.”Hours after the team announced his suspension, Irving apologized in a late-night post on Instagram, saying, “To All Jewish families and Communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize.”Marks addressed reporters at a morning shootaround Friday before a game against the Washington Wizards during a tumultuous week. The Nets are one of the worst teams in the N.B.A., with a record of 3-6, and they fired their coach, Steve Nash, on Tuesday.Antisemitism in AmericaAntisemitism is one of the longest-standing forms of prejudice, and those who monitor it say it is now on the rise across the country.Perilous Times: With hate speech on social media and number of reported incidents on the rise, this fall has become increasingly worrisome for American Jews.Kanye West: The rapper and designer, who now goes by Ye has been widely condemned for recent antisemitic comments. The fallout across industries has been swift.Kyrie Irving: The Nets suspended the basketball player, citing his “failure to disavow antisemitism,” after he defended his support of a film that made hateful claims about Jewish people.Midterms: No major contest this year has been shaped by concerns of antisemitism more prominently than the Pennsylvania governor’s race.Marks said Irving’s apology was a “step in the right direction” but “certainly not enough.”He added that he had not spoken to Irving since he apologized and that the Nets had not considered releasing him. As to whether Irving had shown any willingness to fulfill the team’s mandates for his return, Marks said, “I think we’re going to give him some time, and it’s up to him.”He continued: “His actions will speak louder than words. And if he wants to participate in that, we’ll see where it all goes.”Nets forward Kevin Durant, the team’s best player, also addressed reporters Friday but did not criticize Irving. Durant and Irving, who are friends, both joined the Nets in 2019.“I ain’t here to judge nobody or talk down on the life or how they feel, their views or anything,” Durant said. “I just didn’t like anything that went on. I felt like it was all unnecessary. I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don’t like none of it.”Asked if he thought Irving’s suspension was unfair, Durant said, “I believe and trust in the organization to do what’s right.”After Durant began to receive criticism on social media for his comments, he followed up with a Twitter post an hour later.“Just wanna clarify the statements I made at shootaround, I see some people are confused,” Durant said. “I don’t condone hate speech or anti-semetism, I’m about spreading love always. Our game Unites people and I wanna make sure that’s at the forefront.”The backlash against the 30-year-old Irving began last week, when he posted a link on Twitter to the 2018 film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which promotes several antisemitic tropes. On Saturday, after a loss to the Indiana Pacers, Irving reiterated his support for the film and for an antigovernment conspiracy theory promoted by the Infowars host Alex Jones.The Nets owner Joe Tsai and Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, were among those who had criticized Irving for the post. Silver, the commissioner, called Irving’s post “reckless” and said that he would meet with Irving soon. But even after Irving announced with the A.D.L. on Wednesday that he would donate $500,000 to anti-hate causes, he spoke to reporters and declined to apologize. He acknowledged that there were some things in the film he did not agree with, although he did not specify what they were.“Some of the criticism of the Jewish faith and the community, for sure,” Irving said Thursday. “Some points made in there that were unfortunate.”That was around noon. Over the next 12 hours, the Nets suspended him, saying he was “unfit to be associated” with the team, and Greenblatt said the A.D.L. could not “in good conscience” accept his donation. (The donation announcement had not said that Irving’s funds, or an equal amount from the Nets, would go to the A.D.L. A Nets spokesperson said later that the team and the A.D.L. would work together to decide where the donations would go.)Representative Yvette Clarke, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn, said in a Twitter post that Irving’s suspension was “long overdue” and that antisemitism “has no place in Brooklyn or anywhere else.”In response to Irving’s apology, Greenblatt tweeted Friday morning: “Actions speak louder than words. Because of his post and previous refusals to walk it back, the #antisemitic film/book is now a best seller in multiple categories on @amazon. There is a lot more to do to undo this damage.”Irving’s signature Nike sneakers are popular among players in the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. Nike suspended its relationship with him Friday.Jessie Alcheh/Associated PressOn Friday afternoon, the film was ranked No. 1 among documentaries on Amazon, and a complementary book with the same name was top-ranked in the Christian education category.Irving said in his apology that he “initially reacted out of emotion to being unjustly labeled Anti-Semitic, instead of focusing on the healing process of my Jewish Brothers and Sisters.”Some fans have said they would no longer support the Nets because of Irving, though others had mixed feelings. And Nike’s decision to cut ties with him could have a ripple effect in basketball: Irving’s shoes are popular among players at colleges and in the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. Sue Bird, who retired from the Seattle Storm in September, played in custom versions of Irving’s sneakers that read “Keep Sue Fresh.” Many players at Duke University, which Irving attended, have worn his shoes.Most N.B.A. players have agreements with shoe companies that provide them money and shoes, but few have signature sneakers branded with their names — just 20 to 30 each season. Nike, for instance, makes lines of shoes named for Durant, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, among others. The contracts between players and Nike usually remain private, however, judging by details known about other shoe deals, Nike likely pays Irving several million dollars per year.Nike has been the official provider of N.B.A. uniforms and apparel since the 2017-18 season.The drama around Irving’s posts and now his absence have added to the woes of a reeling Nets team that entered the season less than three weeks ago with championship aspirations. On Friday, Durant spoke about the role the news media has played in Irving’s situation.“This is the way of the N.B.A. now,” Durant said. “So many outlets now, and their stories hit pretty fast now. So that’s where all the chaos is coming from — everybody’s opinions. Everybody has an opinion on the situation, and we’re hearing it nonstop.“But once the ball starts bouncing and we get into practice, none of that stuff really seeps into the gym. So that’s the cool part about being in the league.”Irving will be out at least until Nov. 13, when the Nets will be in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. This will put much of the team’s offensive burden on the 34-year-old Durant. Ben Simmons, who starts at guard alongside Irving, has been injured for the past two games and is expected to miss at least two more games with left knee soreness.The Nets also have not announced a permanent head coach to replace Nash; the assistant coach Jacque Vaughn has been filling in since Nash was fired Tuesday.Tania Ganguli More

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      Nets Suspend Kyrie Irving Indefinitely After Antisemitic Movie Post

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      Irving posted a link to an antisemitic movie last week but has declined to apologize. His suspension will last at least five games.The Nets suspended guard Kyrie Irving indefinitely Thursday, calling him “unfit to be associated” with the team because he has declined to say he has no antisemitic views in the week since he posted a link on Twitter to a film with hateful claims about Jewish people.“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,” the Nets said in a statement.Irving will be suspended without pay for at least five games and “until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct,” the team said.On Thursday, before he was suspended, Irving declined to apologize for his post but said there were some things in the film he did not agree with.“I didn’t mean to cause any harm,” Irving said after a Nets practice. “I’m not the one that made the documentary.”When asked what specific points in the film he did not agree with, Irving responded vaguely.“Some of the criticism of the Jewish faith and the community, for sure,” Irving said. “Some points made in there that were unfortunate.”The team said in the suspension announcement that it was “dismayed” that Irving did not “acknowledge specific hateful material in the film.”Last week, Irving posted a link on Twitter to the film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which is driven by antisemitic tropes about Jewish people lying about their origins. Its false and outlandish claims about Jews include the assertion that the Holocaust never happened.“Those falsehoods are unfortunate,” Irving said when asked if he believed that the Holocaust occurred, despite what the movie said. “And it’s not that I don’t believe in the Holocaust. I never said that. Never ever have said it. It’s not come out of my mouth. I never tweeted it. I never liked anything like it. So, the Holocaust in itself is an event that means something to a large group of people that suffered something that could have been avoided.”On Sunday, Irving deleted the Twitter post that included the film’s link, but he had not spoken publicly since Saturday. That night, during a postgame news conference, Irving argued with a reporter about whether he was promoting the movie by posting about it on Twitter.In the past week, the N.B.A. and its players’ union released statements condemning antisemitism without naming Irving. The Nets owner Joe Tsai said in a tweet that he was “disappointed” with Irving and would speak to him.In a statement released with the Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday, Irving and the Nets said they would each donate $500,000 to unspecified causes and organizations that combat hate in their communities. When asked Thursday if he had met with the Anti-Defamation League, Irving said he was told that the organization wanted a meeting and “we handled it.” Irving had said in his statement Wednesday that he took responsibility for his post.On Thursday morning, less than an hour before Irving spoke to reporters at practice, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver expressed disappointment that Irving had not “offered an unqualified apology and more specifically denounced the vile and harmful content contained in the film he chose to publicize.” Silver said he planned to meet with Irving within the next week.The Nets said in their statement announcing Irving’s suspension that they had tried to help Irving “understand the harm and danger of his words and actions.”“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,” the team said.Irving spoke to reporters for about six minutes Thursday before a member of the Nets’ public relations team ended the news conference. Irving spent half that time responding to a question about whether he was surprised that his Twitter post hurt people.Fans at a Nets game Monday wore T-shirts that said “fight antisemitism.”Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports, via Reuters“I think I can ask a better question which is, where were you when I was a kid figuring out that 300 million of my ancestors are buried in America?” said Irving, who has African American and Native American heritage. “Where were you guys asking those same questions when I was a kid learning about the traumatic events of my familial history and what I’m proud to come from? And why I’m proud to stand here?”When Irving was asked if he had any antisemitic beliefs, he said he respected all walks of life.“I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from,” Irving said when he was asked to answer the question with a “yes” or “no.”Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, chastised Irving for his response.“The answer to the question — ‘Do you have any antisemitic beliefs’ is always ‘NO’ without equivocation,” Greenblatt said in a post on Twitter. “We took @KyrieIrving at his word when he said he took responsibility, but today he did not make good on that promise. Kyrie clearly has a lot of work to do.”The N.B.A. has penalized players for hate speech. Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was fined $40,000 in September for using homophobic language in a video he posted on social media.In March 2021, the league fined Meyers Leonard of the Miami Heat $50,000 and suspended him for one week because he used an antisemitic slur while playing video games on a livestream. Miami also suspended him for two days while the N.B.A. investigated. The Heat then quickly traded Leonard to Oklahoma City, which released him about a week later. No team has signed him since then. More

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      The Nets’ Problems Are Bigger Than Steve Nash

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      The Nets dumped their coach, but the team has never lived up to expectations. And there’s no clear path forward now.For the past three seasons, success for the Nets had been rooted in hypotheticals.Ever since the All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant joined the team in the summer of 2019, the Nets had been supremely talented on paper, with hopes of multiple N.B.A. championships. On the court, though, they were never good enough to contend. Their specialty, it seemed, was not playoff wins but off-court theater.Two weeks into a new season, one that was supposed to be a fresh start, the Nets are once again mired in drama. Last week, Irving posted a link to an antisemitic documentary on his Twitter account, drawing a public rebuke from the team’s owner, Joe Tsai. On Tuesday, the Nets announced that their coach, Steve Nash, was out. Hours later, General Manager Sean Marks sat down behind a microphone and tried to quiet the gathering storms.Marks expressed regret about having to fire Nash, but said that now that it was done, he would “like to get back to basketball,” to “focus on the things that are important.” Asked why fans would continue to cheer for the Nets with the team’s constant dysfunction, Marks replied, “Look, it’s understandable” if they don’t. He said the Nets had a “window” for winning, one he hoped the next coach would maximize with the current roster. But that may take longer than he likes: An hour or so after he finished his news conference, the Nets took the court and lost again, falling to the Chicago Bulls, 108-99.Marks’s problem, the Nets’ problem, is there is no real proof that this team or that any of the other teams assembled during Irving and Durant’s tenure was built to win a championship. Since 2019, the deepest the Nets have advanced in the playoffs was the Eastern Conference semifinals two years ago. Durant carried the offensive load largely by himself in that series, with Irving and the now-departed James Harden mostly sidelined with injuries. If Durant had worn a smaller shoe — one that kept his toe behind the 3-point line on a critical shot — the Game 7 overtime loss that ended the Nets’ season that year might have been a win.But “what ifs” have always been the story of these Nets.Jacque Vaughn, with Kevin Durant, was installed as the Nets’ interim head coach on Tuesday.Jessie Alcheh/Associated PressAfter an off-season in which it seemed as if Durant and Irving would be traded (Durant by request), both returned to Brooklyn instead. The Nets trotted out a revamped roster that also included Ben Simmons and Joe Harris, who were returning from injuries, and the new addition Royce O’Neale, but they struggled out of the gate. The Nets opened the season 1-4 even before the backlash to Irving’s antisemitic post began to take attention away from basketball. Simmons has missed the last two games with injuries. And Tuesday’s defeat dropped them to 2-6; at the moment, only the Orlando Magic (1-7) are keeping them out of last place.And while Nash paid the price for those struggles, many of the Nets’ issues are things that would have been problems for any coach: not only Irving’s social media and Durant’s changing commitment, but also Simmons’s difficulty finding his rhythm on the court; a lack of depth in the frontcourt; and an inability to close out games.“It was a difficult task, first of all, for Steve,” Harris said after Tuesday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls. “It was not an easy job for him, given especially how much turnover we had.”“There was a lot going on,” he added, “and it made for a difficult job.”While Durant said he was “shocked” to wake up from a nap and find out Nash had been fired, he did not seem surprised by the move. Durant said he had not been consulted about Nash’s firing but admitted that he “knew that everybody was being evaluated.”“That’s just how it is in the league,” Durant said. “I like working with Steve. I like working with the coaching staff, and it was a roller coaster the last few years. But you know, at the core of it, basketball is something that we all love to do. So regardless of who the coach is, regardless of the circumstances, still got to come to work.”On Tuesday night, the Nets took the floor against the Bulls, with the assistant coach Jacque Vaughn in Nash’s seat. Vaughn will serve as the interim coach until the Nets find a permanent leader; he said he did not know how long that would take.But the Vaughn-directed Nets looked like the same team they had been all season. Simmons sat out with an injury. They struggled on the defensive end, and particularly at the end, when they allowed Bulls guard Zach LaVine to outscore the Nets by himself (20 points to 19) in the final period. And while Durant looked dominant with 32 points, the Nets again appeared to be a team with an incorrect combination of players.But, at least hypothetically, the Nets say they still believe they can win a championship.General Manager Sean Marks said he wanted the team to be able to focus on basketball.Jessie Alcheh/Associated Press“We got everything you need and more,” said O’Neale, who noted — correctly but rather optimistically — that there were still 74 games left in the season.Durant said the Nets’ issues, in fact, were not unusual.“It’s the N.B.A.,” he said. “Everybody got volatility. Outside people might look at what we do as bigger than what it is, but we come to work every single day. I mean, guys ask for trades before coaches get fired. You know, we have disagreements in our locker room. That happens in the N.B.A. But at the end of the day, we all came to work. It just didn’t work out on the floor.”It’s hard to say when it will work out. Simmons has a knee injury. Irving might be suspended for promoting the antisemitic documentary (Marks said the team was having internal discussions). And after Durant asked to be traded over the summer, it’s not hard to imagine him asking for that again.“I just want a good coach,” Durant said Tuesday. “I’m sure Sean and the staff will do a good job trying to figure that out.” More

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      Kyrie Irving Defends Antisemitic Movie and Conspiracy Theory

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      Irving, the Nets guard, is facing backlash, but said he was “not going to stand down on anything I believe in.”Nets guard Kyrie Irving doubled down on his support of an antisemitic documentary and a “New World Order” conspiracy theory about secret societies during a testy news conference Saturday night, a day after his team’s owner chastised him for supporting the film.The conspiracy theory, pushed by the Infowars host Alex Jones, falsely suggests that people in the government are working to enslave the human population by, among other methods, releasing viruses.“History is not supposed to be hidden from anybody,” Irving said as he defended himself for posting a link on Twitter to the 2018 documentary “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which espouses several antisemitic tropes.“Did I do anything illegal?” Irving said. “Did I hurt anybody? Did I harm anybody? Am I going out and saying that I hate one specific group of people?”Irving posted about the documentary on Twitter and Instagram in the past week, and the Nets owner Joe Tsai rebuked him in a statement Friday, saying that he was “disappointed.”“I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion,” Tsai said in a post on Twitter.The Spread of Misinformation and FalsehoodsElection Fraud Claims: A new report says that major social media companies continue to fuel false conspiracies about election fraud despite promises to combat misinformation ahead of the midterm elections.Russian Falsehoods: Kremlin conspiracy theories blaming the West for disrupting the global food supply have bled into right-wing chat rooms and mainstream conservative news media in the United States.Media Literacy Efforts: As young people spend more time online, educators are increasingly trying to offer students tools and strategies to protect themselves from false narratives.Global Threat: New research shows that nearly three-quarters of respondents across 19 countries with advanced economies are very concerned about false information online.On Saturday afternoon, Irving said in a post on Twitter that he was an “omnist,” a person who supports all religions. “The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday,” he said.At the news conference Saturday, after the Nets lost to the Indiana Pacers, Irving argued with a reporter who said he had “promoted” the documentary and reiterated that he was not antisemitic.“I’m not a divisive person when it comes to religion,” Irving said. “I embrace all walks of life.”As he was pressed about the potential consequences of sharing an antisemitic documentary to his millions of followers on social media, Irving gave seemingly contradictory answers about his impact.“I’m in a unique position to have a level of influence on my community,” Irving said. “What I post does not mean that I support everything that’s being said.”He later said: “There’s things being posted every day. I am no different than the next human being, so don’t treat me any different.”Irving was also asked about his support of Jones, who was ordered this month to pay almost $1 billion in damages in a lawsuit about his false assertions that the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that killed 26 people was a hoax. Irving said he did not back Jones’s claim that Sandy Hook was a hoax, but that Jones was right in a 2002 video about the New World Order theory that Irving shared on Instagram last month.“It’s true,” Irving said, adding, “It’s actually hilarious because out of all the things I posted that day, that was the one post that everyone chose to see.”In the video, Jones said: “The facts and common sense are in. Yes, there have been corrupt empires. Yes, they manipulate. Yes, there are secret societies. Yes, there have been oligarchies throughout history. And yes, today, in 2002, there is a tyrannical organization calling itself the ‘New World Order’ pushing for worldwide government.”There has been public backlash for Irving’s support of Jones and the documentary, but on Saturday he stood firm.“I’m not going to stand down on anything I believe in,” Irving said. “I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”After Irving accused an ESPN reporter of trying to “dehumanize” him and denied that he was promoting the documentary by posting about it, the Nets abruptly ended the news conference.Irving, a seven-time All-Star, has become a lightning rod for criticism in recent years. He missed much of the 2021-22 season because he declined to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, and in 2018 he suggested that the Earth might be flat.Neither the Nets, the N.B.A. nor a representative for Tsai responded to requests for comment. More

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      Kyrie Irving Rebuked for Linking to Antisemitic Documentary

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      Irving, the Nets guard, posted a link on Twitter to a documentary that promotes antisemitic tropes. Joe Tsai, the Nets owner, said he was “disappointed.”The Nets owner Joe Tsai spoke out against his team’s star guard Kyrie Irving on Friday after Irving tweeted a link to a documentary that promotes antisemitic tropes.“I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation,” Tsai wrote in a Twitter post late Friday. “I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.“This is bigger than basketball.”Tsai posted on Twitter just before 11:30 p.m. Friday. A representative for Irving did not immediately respond to a text message.The documentary, “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” was written and directed by Ronald Dalton Jr. and released in 2018. Dalton also released a book with the same title. On Thursday, Irving tweeted a link to a site where users can rent or buy the documentary. He also shared a screenshot of the site on Instagram. In response, Rolling Stone magazine reported on the antisemitic messaging of the documentary and the book.Irving, 30, is a seven-time All-Star in his fourth season with the Nets, but his off-court actions have often overshadowed his basketball career.He did not play in most of the Nets’ games last season in part because he refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which New York City required for him to compete in home games. The Nets initially barred him from road games as well but relented about two months into the season as the team struggled.In September, Irving was widely criticized for sharing a conspiracy-theory video by the Infowars host Alex Jones, who for years falsely said the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that killed 26 children and adults was a hoax.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the N.B.A. Hall of Famer, chastised Irving for sharing Jones’s video, writing on Substack that “Kyrie Irving would be dismissed as a comical buffoon if it weren’t for his influence over young people who look up to athletes.”In 2018, Irving was mocked for falsely suggesting that the Earth might be flat.“Can you openly admit that you know the Earth is constitutionally round?” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “Like, you know that for sure? Like, I don’t know.”Irving joined the Nets as a free agent in 2019 after playing for the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers, with whom he won a championship in 2016 alongside LeBron James. The Nets have made the playoffs in each of Irving’s seasons with the team, but they are struggling this year. Five games into the season, they have won just once. Their next game is Saturday at home against the Indiana Pacers.Tania Ganguli More