Kyrie Irving's keffiyeh, the media's indifference

After Saturday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving wore a keffiyeh to the postgame interview. According to this Outkick article, "a 'keffiyeh' is an Arab symbol of resistance and solidarity, and is popular in Palestine." Outkick also reported that "the Mavericks superstar confirmed that he converted to Islam in 2021, so the keffiyeh simply could’ve been a way he chose to identify with his religion." Given all that's happening in Gaza, though, and the NBA's reputation for being attracted the world's worst despots, it's most likely that Irving wanted to make a point. The weird thing is that "no reporter asked him the motive behind his choice."

The Outkick article continues, saying "While wearing a keffiyeh doesn’t automatically make you anti-Semitic, it’s certainly suspicious given Irving’s past with this issue." That's obviously true but it's equally true that Irving isn't a stranger to stirring up this type of controversy:

Within the past year, Irving has created controversy by sharing content that was deemed anti-Semitic. In November of 2022, Irving retweeted a link to a documentary that spread "false (anti-Semitic) statements, narratives and language that were untrue and offensive to the Jewish Race/Religion."
Irving's keffiyeh
Despite this being a 4+ minute interview, nobody thought it was worthwhile to ask about the keffiyeh:

The NBA is definitely one of the world's worst actors. Despite that, the NBA has done whatever China has instructed them to do. Hamas definitely is one of the worst terrorist organizations in the world. They attacked Israel unprovoked on Oct. 7, 2023 in what I'm calling the October 7 Massacre. Shortly thereafter, the Palestinian community in the U.S. started blaming the attack on Israel's "56-year occupation of Palestine." The famous 6-Day War started in 1967. Further, Oct. 7, 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur war. That war ended in defeat for the Arabs, too. Apparently, liberal sports reporters aren't that schooled in history.

It's obvious that the NBA isn't worried that they're turning off fans by being political. I suspect that the NBA's thinking is that they'll gain worldwide what it loses in the U.S. It's a shame they haven't figured it out that the U.S. initially game them the platform for their activism. That's their decision, though. Perhaps that's why the NBA's ratings have dropped precipitously since the magic years of Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

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