Union veep Jaylen Brown prods Nets on Kyrie Irving suspension
Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics looks on against the Washington Wizards during the third quarter at TD Garden on October 30, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts. Credit: Getty Images
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jaylen Brown, the Celtics star who is a vice president of the NBA players union, says it’s about time that Kyrie Irving was brought back to the Nets.
Irving, whom the Nets suspended for a minimum of five games without pay on Nov. 3 after he posted a link to an antisemitic film on his Instagram and Twitter accounts on Oct. 27, missed his seventh straight game on Tuesday.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before Tuesday’s game against the Kings that he had “no update” on the Irving situation, including whether he would be available for Thursday’s game in Portland. Given that the game is the final one on this West Coast trip, it seems unlikely that he would bring him out here just for that.
Vaughn is frustrated by the fact that there is no clear end point to Irving’s punishment.
“It’s still an indefinite suspension, he’s already missed five or six games, so how many games is he going to continue to miss?” Brown said Monday night after the Celtics' win over Oklahoma City. “Is it another situation going on there? Is it a larger situation going on there, is it a larger conversation that needs to be had? We’ve yet to find out.”
In particular, Brown was upset with Nets owner Joe Tsai’s comment on Saturday that Irving “still had work to do” before he could get back on the floor. The Nets have laid out a multiple-step plan to get back on the floor that includes meeting with local Jewish leaders and going through sensitivity training.
“I’m vice president of the union, and it’s part of my job to protect our players legally. And to see [co-founder of Nike] Phil Knight first come out and condemn Kyrie, and also see Joe Tsai say he has more work to do, I think it’s time for a larger conversation.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
