Longtime sports media personality Rich Eisen is taking Kyrie Irving's recent promotion of an anti-Semitic movie personally.
Eisen, the NFL Network host and former ESPN "SportsCenter" anchor, said Irving's behavior was "scary" during Monday's episode of "The Rich Eisen Show."
"Trust me, I know what an anti-Semitic trope looks like, and what they sound like, and what they feel like. When it lands on you, it stinks. Certainly, when somebody's got four million-plus followers ..."
The remarks from Eisen, who is Jewish, came just days after Irving butted heads with ESPN reporter Nick Friedell after Friedell asked Irving about his social media activity during a postgame media session.
Irving was defiant about the nature of the content, and insisted that Friedell was "dehumanizing" him with the line of questioning.
Eisen took exception to that characterization.
"So, maybe he needs to hear it from me ... you're dehumanizing me, Kyrie" Eisen said. "I'm a Jewish man, descendent of people who died in gas chambers and got incinerated by Nazis. You're dehumanizing me, by putting on your platform a book and a movie that are filled with anti-Semitic 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 clearly is smart enough to know you're not promoting it with like a book tour or a movie tour, but when you put it in front of four million people who might not have known about it, you're promoting it. You're giving it your platform. ...
"And, yeah, it's offensive. And it's also really scary, because it's normalized by somebody who puts a ball through a hoop, and is very famous for it and generationally rich for it. And, you have a platform because of it, and it's normalized. ... It's damn frightening, and I'd like you to help do something about it."
Irving later deleted the posts in question, but the damaged seemed to be done. He did not explain their removal, and declined to take questions after the Nets' win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night. In that game, a group of young Orthodox Jewish spectators wearing shirts that read "Fight anti-Semitism" were sat courtside.
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