Almost exactly one year after calling Kyrie Irving a “douchebag” for his vaccine stance, Howard Stern used the term again over the NBA star’s recent antisemitic tweet.
“This is some great thinker,” Stern said sarcastically about Irving. “He bounces a basketball and puts it through a hoop and people are paying attention to him.”
During his Monday radio show on SiriusXM, Stern’s opening thought on Irving came close to supporting Laura Ingraham’s controversial “shut up and dribble” demand. Irving’s basketball ability has justly earned him a large platform, but his belief in conspiracy theories and disregard for everyone without a similarly sized platform is what makes it concerning when people pay attention to him.
Irving previously claimed the Earth is flat, then he reposted a video of Alex Jones and supported the dangerous conspiracy theorist’s claims about secret societies corrupting America. Irving has also ranted against the media’s ability to “control public perception.” Most recently, he promoted a film widely considered to be filled with antisemitic tropes, which led to his testy exchange with ESPN reporter Nick Friedell. The exchange highlighted Irving’s discourse with the media as he ignored the fact that he was being questioned for having antisemitic beliefs and falsely accused Friedell of trying to create clickbait.
“Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Kyrie was on Twitter and he reposted a thing for a book and a movie about how the Jews are killing the world or something,” Stern continued before replaying the exchange between Irving and Friedell. “Of course there was a shitstorm…this reporter went up to Kyrie Irving and you can see how testy Kyrie gets.”
Stern proceeded to mock Irving for attempting to play the victim during his exchange with Friedell, as the NBA star also tried to deny that his controversial tweet promoted the antisemitic film. “He’s a f*cking moron,” Stern ranted on Irving before calling him a “douchebag” for the third time during his Monday morning radio show.
[Stern]
