Charles Barkley Says NBA 'Should Have' Suspended Kyrie Irving After He Promoted Antisemitic Film

Charles Barkley thinks Kyrie Irving "should have been suspended" after the Brooklyn Nets star promoted an antisemitic film.

"I think the NBA dropped the ball," Barkley, 59, said during Tuesday night's episode of Inside the NBA.

Barkley said that "the NBA made a mistake" in not suspending Irving, who had already been the subject of controversy for his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and that the league has previously done "the right thing" by suspending players for similar behavior in the past.

Barkley told co-hosts Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith and Johnson that he thinks NBA commissioner Adam Silver, specifically, "should have suspended him."

"First of all, Adam is Jewish," Barkley continued. "You can't take my $40 million and insult my religion."

"We have suspended people and fined people who have made homophobic slurs, and that was the right thing to do."

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Barkley said that Irving should have received disciplinary action after acknowledging his public support for a theory from Alex Jones, whom Barkley called "crazy" during Tuesday's broadcast.

Barkley added that he doesn't use social media much, but he believes that Irving needs to be more responsible with his platform as an NBA star.

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"When you're somebody as great at basketball like [Irving], people are going to listen to what you say," said Barkley.

Regardless, Barkley concluded that he blames the NBA in the situation for not stepping in sooner. "It's too late now," he said. "This should have been handled already."

Irving, who claimed at a press conference Saturday that posting a link to the antisemitic film did not mean he was promoting it, was recently met by a group of upset Nets fans sitting courtside at Monday night's game in Brooklyn, wearing matching "Fight Antisemitism" shirts and yarmulkes.

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AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh

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The group's public message comes two days after Irving posted a link to the film, Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America on his social media.

According to Rolling Stone, the film is based on a book promoting antisemitic messages, as well as "ideas in line with more extreme factions of the Black Hebrew Israelites" including "misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, and Islamophobia."