Kyrie Irving first started publicly dabbling in conspiracy theories during his final seasons with the Cavaliers. Six years ago, he began appearing on his teammates’ Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson’s podcast, and broached the subjects of JFK’s assassination and the possibility of a faked moon landing.
Those conspiratorial musings seem benign compared to Irving’s recent ruminating about Hebrew Israelites and other antisemitic tropes. A new profile in New York Magazine explores how Irving arrived at such a confounding mental place. As it turns out, Irving’s associates say the shift happened in Boston.
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Back in Cleveland, Irving started living with his business manager and high-school classmate, Alex Jones (seriously). In the summer of 2017, Irving requested a trade, and the Cavs sent him to the Celtics. While Irving got off to an incredible start, he missed the end of the season and the playoffs with a knee injury. Around that time, his maternal grandfather died. Irving says the episode sparked “some of the worst mental-health issues” of his life.
Irving lived with Jones in Boston, and as author Simon van Zuylen-Wood writes, there was concern the two were “spending the dark Massachusetts winters isolated at home, bingeing YouTube.”
The pandemic only seemingly exacerbated Irving’s YouTube bingeing, leading him down algorithm-driven rabbit holes that eventually introduced him to the film, “Hebrews to Negroes.” The nearly four-year movie contains an array of antisemitic falsehoods: a fake quotation from a Jewish man that denies the Holocaust, a made-up quote from Adolf Hitler about how Black people are the real children of Israel.
Nevertheless, Irving tweeted out the video’s link on Amazon Prime, sparking the biggest off-court controversy of his chaotic career. At first, Irving refused to apologize, or even equivocally say the Holocaust happened.
Close allies of Irving told van Zuylen-Wood they don’t think Irving actually watched the full movie, which is described as poorly made and interminable. “He watched little parts of it and probably fell asleep,” they said.
Still, Irving’s recalcitrance burned his relationship with the Nets, and last week, he was traded to the Mavericks.
Now, another team will be tasked with balancing Irving’s basketball brilliance and his never-ending stream of half-baked nonsense.
The trend started in Boston.