Charles Barkley on Kyrie Irving: 'I think he should've been suspended' / News - Basketnews.com

Charles Barkley thinks the NBA should have fined or suspended Kyrie Irving for his social media posts.

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Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving has been in the news recently after promoting a movie that is considered to be antisemitic on his Twitter account. It even forced protests during the Nets games.

Kyrie Irving

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Following the news, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was critical of the NBA in the NBA on TNT show for not punishing the player in any way so far.

"I think the NBA dropped the ball. I think he should have been suspended. I think Adam [Silver] should have suspended him. First of all, Adam is Jewish. You can't take my 40 million dollars and insult my religion," Barkley told.

"You can insult me, you have the right but I have the right to say 'no, you're not going to take my $40 million and insult my religion'," he continued. "They made a mistake. We have suspended people and fined people that made homophobic slurs, and that was the right thing to do."

In early September, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards posted an Instagram story where he called a group of men queer, followed by a racial slur, for which he was fined $40,000 by the league.

"I saw they did the same thing to the kid in Minnesota this year when he made the gay slur. I think you should get suspended or fined," Barkley explained. "I think him acknowledging the Alex Jones things, something should have happened with that too because that dude is crazy."

Alex Jones is a far-right activist and show host, recently known for being sentenced for spreading lies about the Sandy Hook massacre and its victims. Jones was ordered to pay $965 million to the shooting's victims and their families.

"When you are somebody as great in basketball as him, people are going to listen to what you say. I blame the NBA. He should have been suspended," Barkley continued.

"The NBA has given in to peer pressure. If one of our players does something, the league has to do something immediately. If you just give in to peer pressure, that's the problem I have. This should have been handled already," the legendary forward concluded.

The NBA has released a statement without directly mentioning Irving but stating that hate speech of any kind is unacceptable and that the league will continue working to ensure that every member understands the impact of their words and actions.

The full segment about Kyrie Irving on NBA on TNT:

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