Nike Drops Kyrie Irving For Good Following Antisemitic Controversy: Social Media Reacts

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Kyrie Irving is no longer a Nike athlete. The Brooklyn Nets guard and Nike officially parted ways on Monday exactly one month after the company suspended him after he tweeted a link to an antisemitic documentary.

Irving's agent and stepmother, Shatellia Riley Irving, released a statement saying Irving and Nike "mutually decided to part ways."

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While Irving hasn't formally addressed Nike dropping him, he shared a GIF on Twitter with the caption 'there's nothing more priceless than being free.'

Nike announced on November 5 that it had suspended its relationship with Irving after his promotion of an anti-semitic movie based on a problematic book.

“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism. To that end, we’ve made the decision to suspend our relationship with Kyrie Irving effective immediately and will no longer launch the Kyrie 8. We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone," Nike said in a statement at the time.

The Nets suspended Irving as well with team owner Joe Tsai assigning Irving a minimum five-game suspension over the tweet. The team gave him six steps to complete before returning to play, including an individual assessment by Tsai.

Irving ultimately missed eight consecutive games for the Nets.

Social Media Reacts To Nike Dropping Kyrie Irving

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.