When Steve Kerr was first asked about Kyrie Irving on Thursday, the Warriors head coach demurred.
“Yeah, I’m going to sit that one out,” Kerr said.
Irving, the embattled Brooklyn Nets point guard, recently shared a link to a movie that contains antisemitism, as well as a conspiracy theory from Alex Jones, the right-wing provocateur who has been ordered to pay roughly $1 billion to Sandy Hook families for lying about the 2012 school shooting.
Irving later removed the tweets. On Thursday, he addressed the media for the first time this week but didn’t apologize.
“I take my responsibility for posting that,” Irving said. “Some things that were questionable in there, untrue. Like I said in the first time you guys asked me when I was sitting on that stage, I don’t believe everything that everybody posts — it’s a documentary. So I take my responsibility.”
Irving and the Nets reportedly donated $500,000 each to causes and organizations dedicated to fighting hate speech.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who is jewish, said in a statement that he’s disappointed in Irving’s lack of remorse and plans to meet with him. No discernable penalties have been levied against Irving.
Although he first avoided the topic, Kerr eventually addressed the situation.
“Words matter,” Kerr said. “Words really, really matter. And in modern society, with social media, the way things can sort of just fan across the globe exponentially and get five million hits immediately, every comment matters. Everything you say matters.”
Kerr cited a column in The Athletic by David Aldridge as “brilliant.”
“We have to be more vigilant as a society,” Kerr said. “We can’t be just accepting comments that are so destructive and insulting to people. And it’s crucial that everybody, whether you’re a professional athlete or not, think before they just throw stuff out there that can be so damaging.”