LeBron James: Kyrie Irving 'caused some harm to a lot of people'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — LeBron James became the first prominent NBA player to speak out against suspended Nets guard Kyrie Irving for linking to an antisemitic film on his social media accounts. 

James, talking to reporters after the Los Angeles Lakers' game late Friday night, said his former teammate “caused some harm to a lot of people” by posting the link and creating the subsequent firestorm. 

Irving posted the link on Oct. 27 and, after declining to apologize for it, was suspended without pay by the Nets on Thursday for at least five games.  

Irving apologized on his social media accounts four hours after he was suspended, but the Nets have not said when and if he will be reinstated, only that his belated apology was not enough.  General manager Sean Marks said the Nets want Irving to seek counseling dealing with anti-hate speech and meet with Jewish leaders in the community before they consider ending his suspension. 

Irving signed a one-year, $36.5 million contract during the summer. He will be a free agent after the season. 

James and Irving were teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers. They went to three NBA Finals together and won the championship in 2016. 

“It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, how tall you are, what position you’re in,” James said. “If you are promoting or soliciting or saying harmful things to any community that harms people, then I don’t respect it. I don’t condone it. 

“I can tell you this, it’s simple: Me personally, I don’t condone any hate to any kind. To any race. To Jewish communities, to Black communities, to Asian communities.” 

James said he still has a lot of affection for Irving. 

“At the end of the day, Kyrie is his own man,” he said. “He stands up in front of the media and speaks. He is a man and [from] a great family. He’s a great . . .  I love the kid. He’s not even a kid no more. He’s 30 . . .  I don’t know the direction, the steps that he takes, but he’s apologized for what he said and I hope that he understands that what he said was harmful to a lot of people. And we as humans, none of us are perfect, but I hope he understands what he did and the actions that he took are just harmful to a lot of people. I really didn’t get into it too much. But I understand that when you’re hurting anybody, I understand that. That is just common sense.” 

James recently decided not to air an episode of his YouTube show “The Shop” that featured rapper Kanye West because of what he called West’s use of hate speech. 

“You guys know where I stand,” James said. “And that’s part of the reason why I didn’t air ‘The Shop’ episode, why we kicked that out of the archives. Because it was hate conversation going on there. And I don’t represent that. There’s no place in this world for it. Nobody can benefit from that.” 

Irving lost a sponsor on Friday night when Nike announced that it will not release the “Kyrie 8” sneaker as scheduled on Tuesday. 

"At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism," Nike said in a statement. "To that end, we've made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8. We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone." 

The Nets were 3-6 going into Saturday night’s game against the Hornets in Charlotte. They walloped the Wizards in Washington on Friday, 128-86. 

“All the outside noise and everything, it's tough,” forward Royce O’Neale said after the victory. “We just had to keep the focus on the game and keep our game plan and discipline to come out and execute to get to the win.” 

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.