Amar’e Stoudemire believes Kyrie Irving needs to apologize.
Irving created a firestorm last week when he tweeted a link to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a film with anti-Semitic tropes. He has deleted the tweet, but not apologized for it.
Stoudemire converted to Judaism and has spent time in Israel. He was an assistant coach with the Nets last season, and thus has a relationship with Irving. He was asked for his perspective on the situation on ESPN’s “Get Up” Wednesday morning.
“You [Irving] have to give an apology,” Stoudemire said. “If you’re going to promote a documentary that has false allegations inside of it, and you may not understand that allegations inside of this documentary are false, OK, you made a mistake, right? So apologize for it. And so I think that’s the issue, by not apologizing for it, that’s something the NBA is going to take a look at.”
Stoudemire was asked about Charles Barkley’s assertion on Tuesday night that NBA commissioner Adam Silver should suspend Irving.
“I think something has to happen, whether it’s an intensive conversation about what he’s doing and what his plans are as a basketball player,” Stoudemire said. “So I think that conversation has to happen. As far as suspension, I’m not sure how that plays out. Kyrie’s a guy who’s trying to find himself. He’s always on a quest for learning and knowledge and information.
“And if you’re not totally factual or understanding what you’re learning or trying to promote, then just don’t promote it. Just learn quietly and try to figure it out. But once you start putting information out there that’s not true, it now creates a problem.”