Kevin Durant on Kyrie Irving's suspension from Brooklyn Nets: “I just didn’t like anything, I felt like it was all unnecessary”
Kevin Durant addressed Kyrie Irving's latest controversy on Friday, a day after Irving was suspended for at least five games by the Brooklyn Nets.
Although Irving was kept away from media members for several days, when he spoke about the situation Thursday, he seemed to tiptoe around an apology. Shortly thereafter, the Nets suspended Irving.
During a scrum with media members on Friday morning, Durant expressed frustration over the situation as a whole, rather than Irving for creating the controversy.
"It's an unfortunate situation for people that are impacted, but the situation, it just sucks all around for everybody, and hopefully we can move past it."
When asked specifically about Irving's conduct, Durant said:
"I ain't here to judge nobody or talk down on nobody for how they feel or their views or anything. I just didn't like anything that went on. I felt like it was all unnecessary. I feel like we coulda just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don't like none of that."
You can catch the comments from Kevin Durant in the video below:
The Nets (2-6) have had a tumultuous time ever since Irving tweeted a link to a movie that has antisemitic content.
On Tuesday, Brooklyn fired coach Steve Nash. Despite Durant having issued an ultimatum to the team's front office in August, Durant on Tuesday said he was still shocked when the Nets and Nash parted ways.
Meanwhile, Nets general manager Sean Marks said he was hoping cooler heads would prevail when he kept Irving away from the media.
But Thursday's news conference with Irving provided another bizarre turn.
While questioning media members on where they were during his childhood and calling himself a "beacon of light," Irving took responsibility for his actions. Despite that, the Nets' front office was troubled by his lack of an apology and subsequently suspended him.
Kevin Durant on Kyrie Irving's suspension
While he came up short in condemning Irving's reposting of the controversial film, Durant did weigh in on Irving's suspension. The way he sees things, the Nets organization handles things like that.
"I believe and trust in the organization to do what's right," Durant said.
Durant has made it clear in interviews and on social media in recent years that his sole focus is on playing basketball and winning. However, his lack of condemnation in Friday's media scrum was met with some criticism. Considering that very few players have criticized Irving publicly, many hoped Durant would take a stronger stance.
Kevin Durant’s Twitter clarification on his statement
Durant later took to Twitter to clarify his stance. In the tweet, Durant condemned antisemitism while explaining that basketball is meant to primarily unite people.
Just wanna clarify the statements I made at shootaround, I see some people are confused..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
Kyrie Irving suspended from Brooklyn Nets
As it stands right now, Irving is facing a minimum five-game suspension. With the Nets organization dissatisfied with how he handled things on Thursday. In order for the franchise to move past the situation, it has created a "series of objective remedial measures" Irving must do in order to be associated with the team again.
The franchise posted the following Tweet on Thursday:
Statement from the Brooklyn Nets https://t.co/699px8XYpx
One of the things Irving is supposed to do is meet with the Anti-Defamation League in order to better understand his actions. Although he apologized on Instagram hours after his suspension, Irving didn't attend a meeting with the ADL earlier in the week, according to ESPN's Jay Williams.
Hours after Irving's news conference and subsequent suspension Thursday, the ADL rejected Irving's donation of $500,000 on Wednesday.
We were optimistic but after watching the debacle of a press conference, it’s clear that Kyrie feels no accountability for his actions. @ADL cannot in good conscience accept his donation.