Whitlock: Kyrie Irving’s freedom exposes the enslaved

Kyrie Irving did not betray Kevin Durant. Joseph Tsai, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, did that.

Irving ended his partnership with Durant because Tsai left the mercurial point guard no choice when he suspended Irving in November over a harmless tweet. Tsai’s eight-game suspension legitimized the anti-Semitic smears leveled against Irving for retweeting a movie poster promoting “Hebrews 2 Negroes,” a long-winded documentary focused on the origins of American black men.

Late last week, Irving informed the Nets that he wanted to be traded before Thursday’s trade deadline. On Monday, Brooklyn acquiesced, sending Irving to the Dallas Mavericks for players and draft picks. Irving’s critics have argued that Irving’s trade demand was selfish and unfair to Durant.

I completely disagree. Kyrie had to exit Brooklyn for his own sanity. No way should he have continued to work for an owner who unfairly smeared him as anti-Semitic. If I’m Kevin Durant, as a friend to Irving, I would be supportive of his trade demand.

I’m anti-divorce. But if a friend were being physically abused in her marriage, I would be supportive of her seeking separation and/or divorce.

The damage Tsai and others inflicted on Irving’s reputation justified Irving’s exit. Durant has to be pragmatic enough to realize that. Also, let’s not forget that a year ago, Durant briefly asked to be traded.

The Irving-Durant partnership has been rocky since it started in 2019. Durant sat out the first season while recovering from an Achilles tear. Irving’s ankle injury in the playoffs contributed to the Nets losing a seven-game series to the Bucks in their second season. Year three of the duo was hampered by Irving’s justifiable decision to refuse the experimental COVID vaccination medical trials and an illogical New York stipulation that forbade Irving to play home games. This season, year four, ended with Kyrie’s trade to Dallas.

The bad guy here is Tsai. He mismanaged his relationship with Irving. Tsai should have forcefully spoken out against New York’s ridiculous COVID policies that allowed unvaccinated opponents to play at the Barclays Center. Irving could attend home games as a fan but couldn’t step on the court to play.

Tsai was unwilling to fight for Irving’s “my body, my choice” medical freedom. Tsai willingly participated in the NBA’s bullying of its perfectly healthy young athletes, forcing most of them to bow to the COVID gods.

Irving’s anti-vaxx stance, in my opinion, led to the anti-Semitic smear.

You’ll never convince me that any rational person was upset by Irving’s retweet of “Hebrews 2 Negroes.” No one watched the three-hour documentary. No one sincerely thought the documentary would harm the Jewish community. If they thought that, there would have been a legitimate effort to pressure Jeff Bezos to remove the doc from Amazon Prime. It’s still available for rental or purchase.

“Hebrews 2 Negroes” was a convenient excuse to punish Irving for refusing to take the experimental medical trials.

Big Pharma, the television networks, and sports leagues have worked in conjunction to intimidate and bully high-profile influencers into promoting the so-called vaccines that don’t stop transmission.

Irving is a hero. He withstood personal attacks from virtually all the sports broadcasters who are overpaid because of the money pharmaceutical companies dump into television. Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, Shannon Sharpe, and a laundry list of others ridiculed Irving at the behest of Big Pharma. They did so under the guise of standing against anti-Semitism.

Pro-vaccine belief really fueled the public scorn. Jealousy was also mixed in.

Kyrie Irving is truly free. Most men – black, white, or brown – are not free in modern America. They live in fear of political correctness, social media lynch mobs, secular elite Hollywood puppet masters, feminists, and globalist corporations.

I’m not saying Irving is immune to fear. I’m not saying I’m immune to fear. No man is free from fear.

I’m saying Irving has a line. Fear is only going to drive him so far. Most men today do not have a line. They’re going to do whatever money requires them to do. Those men can’t stand Kyrie Irving. They’re jealous of Irving. They’re bitter that Irving’s courage exposes their lack of courage.

That’s why ESPN’s Jay Williams was justified in asking Stephen A. Smith if his problem with Kyrie is personal. It is personal.

Smith is paid by ESPN to act like he’s free and fearless. Irving exposed that fallacy. The same thing happened to Charles Barkley.

No real man should have had a problem with Irving’s decision to refuse the vaccine. If we’re not supposed to count another man’s pockets, why would we monitor what another man is willing to inject into his body?

No real man should have had a problem with Irving’s retweet of a movie poster distributed on Amazon Prime. Irving is free to think he’s a Jew. He’s free to explore his heritage and reach right and wrong conclusions.

Irving’s freedom scares the mentally enslaved, the people who know their popularity, privilege, and paychecks depend on doing what they’re told. Irving represents exactly what Nike wants you to believe LeBron James represents. That’s why Nike dumped Kyrie. His vaccine stance and Israelite beliefs exposed LeBron as a fraudulent successor to Muhammad Ali.