Stephen A. Smith Compares Kyrie Irving’s Suspension To A ‘Knee On His Neck’
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith came to the defense of Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving on Friday morning, comparing Irving’s suspension from the organization to the death of George Floyd.
Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin, a Minnesota police officer, in the summer of 2020 after Chauvin had his knee pressed against the back of Floyd’s neck. The death of Floyd sparked protests and riots throughout the country that summer.
Irving’s suspension came after he refused to apologize when he tweeted a clip from the film called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.” The film contained numerous anti-Semitic tropes.
Irving apologized in an Instagram post a few hours after the Nets announced his suspension and wrote, “To all the Jewish families and communities that are hurt and affected from my post, I am deeply sorry to have caused you pain, and I apologize.” Irving would still have to serve his suspension for a minimum of five games.
On Thursday afternoon, Irving’s former teammate LeBron James tweeted his support of Irving, believing the suspension was “excessive.”
On First Take, Smith felt the same way James did. Smith felt the Nets did not treat Irving fairly, and he would not stay quiet about it.
“You are emasculating this man,” Smith said. “And when you emasculate a black man, I’m going to say something about that. It is uncalled for; it is unnecessary. Black folks, we don’t get enough credit for this; we forgive people all the time. How many things have been accorded against us? How many things have been spoken about us inaccurately? How many times throughout history have we been demonized? And marginalized? And insulted? We’ve shown forgiveness; we’ve shown compassion.”
Smith explained he no longer had a relationship with Irving or Irving’s father, Drederick, so his defense of Irving had nothing to do with their relationship. Smith brought up the 2020 riots after Floyd’s death.
“We got riots that took place in the streets a couple of years ago,” Smith added. “And I told everyone back then; I said ‘when George Floyd had that knee on his neck, what people didn’t get,’ outside of the black community, is that black folks were going off because we were saying from a figurative perspective, from a metaphorical perspective, we always feel like we got a knee on our neck. And that’s where the frustration and the fulminant of vitriol and hostility and, dare I say; violence came shining through.”
Smith pivoted and invoked the death of Floyd, drawing a comparison to Irving and his suspension.
“So here we are again,” Smith continued. “Now, this doesn’t have anything to do with that in a literal perspective, but this is somebody or a bunch of people out there trying to put their knee and keep their knee on Kyrie’s neck. Kyrie does not deserve that. He made a mistake. He made a mistake; he had to apologize for it. He’s been embarrassed because of it. He’s cost himself money because of it. He’s been suspended because of it.”
Smith explained that if NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who is Jewish, felt Irving was not anti-Semitic, then Irving should not face any more criticism:
If Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, who is a Jewish man, comes out publically and acknowledges he made a mistake, he was wrong. And he thinks the suspension and the conversations have gone a long way towards pushing this forward; the Jewish community should be able to accept that.
Watch above via ESPN.
