Much has been made of Kyrie Irving’s recent comments and promotion of an anti-Semitic movie on Amazon Prime Video, and his interaction with ESPN Reporter Nick Friedell about his promotion. 670 The Score hosts Dan Bernstein and Laurence Holmes had high praise for Friedell, and other media members, for their response.
“On a personal note, I’d just like to say I’m proud of my former intern at The Score Nick Friedell,” Holmes said. “I think that he did a wonderful job of trying to make sure the important questions get answered by someone who doesn’t want to have an actual discussion but will talk to you all day long about the importance of having those discussions. I also think it’s interesting hearing him talk about not wanting to re-traumatize the children of Sandy Hook, while not realizing he’s re-traumatizing people in the Jewish community.”
“While saying ‘I don’t have to understand anything from you’,” Bernstein added, before Holmes noted Irving doubled and tripled down on his comments by saying they were true. “About the Alex Jones post. ‘It’s true.’ And about these secret societies that Marcus Stroman was tweeting about yesterday, too. These are not proud times for Duke University, I can say that,” Bernstein, a Duke graduate, concluded.
The show then played comments made by Rich Eisen, who vehemently opposed what Irving said, and what he misunderstood.
“You’re dehumanizing me, Kyrie. I’m a Jewish man,” Eisen said. “Descendant of people who died in gas chambers and got incinerated by Nazis. You’re dehumanizing me by putting on your platform a book and movie that is filled with antisemitic tropes that are designed or eventually lead to the dehumanization of me, and my children, and my ancestors who died because they were Jewish.
“It’s not funny, it’s not hilarious, and I can’t believe I have to tell someone from Duke who is clearly smart enough to know — you’re not promoting it with a tour — but when you put it in front of four million people who might not have already heard about it or know about it, you’re promoting it. You’re giving it your platform.”
Bernstein, who is Jewish, noted he’s the descendent of a man who fled Poland to avoid Jewish persecution.
“If you don’t speak up against it at this stage — if this gets normalized, if this gets to be ok — you can hear the rumble of the trains. You can hear ’em,” an emotional Bernstein said.
