Celtics star Jaylen Brown criticized Nike and its founder Phil Knight after the business maven said that Nets guard Kyrie Irving “stepped over the line” when he shared an antisemitic film on Twitter.
Brown shared his thoughts regarding Knight’s comments on his personal Twitter account Thursday.
“Since when did Nike care about ethics?” he asked.
The comments from Knight came on the heels of the apparel company suspending its relationship with the Nets star last week.
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” the company 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.”
Irving was given a list of items that he needed to satisfy in order to return to the court for the Nets franchise, which suspended him “at least five games” earlier this month. Brown, who is vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, told reporters on Tuesday that he believes the union will appeal the suspension handed down by the Nets because “a lot of the players expressed discomfort with the terms” handed down by the team.
While there is no clarity regarding whether Irving has met any of the conditions from the team, the point guard met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver earlier this week to discuss the matter.
