Kyrie Irving Signs a Five-Year Deal With ANTA
Via: ANTA
This article was originally published on November 7, 2022.
Update July 12, 2023: It's official! Dallas Mavericks' Point Guard Kyrie Irving has signed a five-year deal with Chinese sports brand ANTA. This move has been somewhat expected as Irving has been clocked wearing ANTA's footwear leading up to the official announcement. The details of the deal are yet to be unveiled, but the player is expected to kick off the 2023/2024 season wearing the Shock Wave 5, with a signature shoe set to debut toward the beginning of 2024.
Update December 6, 2022: A Nike spokesperson has confirmed that Kyrie Irving is no longer associated with the brand. This means the basketballer is now free to wear any brand he wishes. Check out the tweet below from The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Update November 11, 2022: Phil Knight has waded in the Kyrie Irving controversy this week, the Nike founder saying the Brooklyn Nets point guard ‘stepped over the line’ by sharing an anti-Semitic documentary to his social channel.
‘I would doubt that we go back,’ co-founder Phil Knight said in an interview with CNBC that aired Thursday. ‘But I don't know for sure’.
The comments come after Nike suspended their ties with Kyrie Irving, and slammed the breaks on the launch of the Kyrie 8 (originally scheduled to arrive this week). Kyrie has also been suspended by the Brooklyn Nets for at least five games; he has missed four already.
‘Kyrie stepped over the line,’ Knight said. ‘It's kind of that simple. He made some statements that we just can't abide by and that's why we ended the relationship. And I was fine with that.’
continues to generate news headlines for all the wrong reasons, the masterful and mercurial point guard this time creating furore by ostensibly showing support for the controversial documentary, Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America.
Re-tweeting the documentary to his millions of followers last week, the film has generated backlash for its overt anti-Semitic content.
Nike have subsequently dropped the NBA champion, halting the release of the upcoming – scheduled to launch next week. It’s a significant move from Nike, with Irving's signature line undoubtedly one of the most popular league-wide.
Nike are not the only one’s taking action against Irving. His own team, the Brooklyn Nets, have suspended Irving until he proves his willingness to educate himself on the dangers of anti-Semitism.
Brooklyn in a statement said it’d made ‘repeated attempts to work with Irving to help him understand the harm and danger of his words and actions’ and that it was ‘of the view that he is currently unfit to be associated’ with the team until he ‘satisfies a series of objective remedial measures’.
As by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, this includes the following:
- Apologise and condemn anti-Semitic movie
- Make a $500,000 donation to anti-hate causes
- Complete sensitivity training
- Complete anti-Semitic training
- Meet with ADL and Jewish leaders
-Meet with Nets owner Joe Tsai to demonstrate understanding.
This is a developing story.