"I was going 'What am I missing?'" — Michael Jai White doesn’t understand why Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley called Kyrie Irving an idiot for sharing an anti-Semitic film
Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Michael Jai White
© Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports; David Shankbone
When Kyrie Irving lit the NBA on fire in the first few weeks of the regular season by sharing a film on social media that promoted anti-Semitism, many weren't forgiving towards the point guard. It also didn't help that Kyrie didn't treat the situation seriously when he was first accused, as he refused to apologize before being suspended.
Former NBA players and Hall-of-Famers like Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley shared they faced second-hand embarrassment because of Irving's actions, going as far as calling Irving an idiot for dividing the basketball community and people worldwide.
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Michael Jai comes to Kyrie's defense.
But according to American actor, director, and martial artist, Michael Jai White, O'Neal and Barkley's comments towards Irving were premature and unwarranted. Jai believes Irving didn't do anything wrong by sharing the film entitled "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America" on Twitter because it wasn't like he added a caption or opinion that further promoted the film.
According to Jai, all Kyrie did was share the link to the film, and therefore, he doesn't deserve to be called an idiot.
"… what did Kyrie say? What did he say? I was calling all kinds of friends like yeah but what did he say? He posted this thing about this film that's supposed to be anti-Semitic and I'm like well but I couldn't find what he said so I was going what am I missing? You know, Charles Barkley and these folks angry about him and I'm like I must be missing something. Because Charles Barkley called this man an idiot I believe It was somebody who I'm going wait wait wait. Here's a man who's walked like 99% of the human population. I'm a big fan of who Shaq is and so I was like wait, I must be missing something because if they didn't see the documentary, I'm like what did this guy say?" Jai said in his recent appearance on the Vlad TV podcast.
Two sides to a coin
It's important to see both sides of the story and come up with a conclusion on which party is right based on your beliefs and opinions. For Michael Jai, he believes that Kyrie shouldn't be scrutinized this much because all he wanted to do was search for enlightenment and, in Jai's own words, look for information in this documentary that's been denied to so many people in the past.
As for O'Neal and Barkley, they believe that it's Kyrie's responsibility to use his voice and platform responsibly as a global personality and that even if he might not have "actively" said anything about the film (besides posting it on Twitter), ultimately his platform equals his voice. Kyrie should've known the consequences of posting a venomously antisemitic film, and because he didn't, he was punished rigorously by the NBA.
