Source: Maddie Meyer / Getty
Irving fulfilled all the steps to get reinstated as an active member of the
Brooklyn Nets. Then, for his first game back on Sunday, Brooklyn’s Barclay’s arena was overwhelmed with Black Hebrew Israelites who were chanting.
A video of the hundreds of men donning purple and gold went viral online, and Brown showed his support by retweeting the video and adding a quote tweet that read “Energy.”
https://twitter.com/FCHWPO/status/1594458907883233280?s=20&t=HA2qrhwA_N6q2220NVq4bQ
But upon further review, Brown wasn’t showing his support for Black Israelites; he saw the purple and gold and thought it was a gathering of members from the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
https://twitter.com/FCHWPO/status/1594514788599881728?s=20&t=x4sul1XZ1H-5KYkuqS6oRQ
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“I was not aware of what specific group that was outside of Barclay’s Center tonight. I was celebrating the unification of our people welcoming the return of Kyrie to the court, first glance I thought it was a known fraternity the (C/Que’s) Omega psi phi (step’n) showing support,” Brown tweeted after realizing his mistake.
Brown has been vocal about his support for Irving after he was suspended for several games for not properly apologizing for sharing a movie that upheld antisemitic views. Both players are vice presidents of the National Basketball Players Association, and Brown didn’t like when Nets owner
Joe Tsai said Irving solely had more work to do before getting reinstated.
“He didn’t say that the organization was working together to get Kyrie back on the floor, he said that he had ‘more work to do.’ Our society has more work to do, including Joe Tsai,” Brown said. “It’s 2022, it takes ten minutes of time to see who these business owners, corporations, etc., who they’re associated with, who they’re doing business with, who they’re affiliated with.”
That last line is a direct shot at Tsai’s company, Alibaba, and China’s horrible human rights violations.
See how Twitter’s reacting to Brown’s confusion below:
