Update (12/5): A month after being suspended from the Nike roster, NBA reporter Shams Charania announces that Nike and Kyrie Irving have parted ways and that Irving is now a sneaker free agent.
In an interview with CNBC, Nike co-founder Phil Knight opened up about the strained relationship with Irving saying “I would doubt that we go back,” co-founder Phil Knight said in an interview that aired Thursday. “But I don’t know for sure.” Irving’s controversial tweet and subsequent non-apology led the Nike team to cut ties with Irving and halt the release of his Kyrie 8.
“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.” Expounding more on the team’s thought process behind the dissolution of the deal Knight said “We look at who we sign and how much we pay and we look not only at how good the athlete is but what his or her character are,” Knight said. “It’s not an exact science, but it’s a process that we go through with a lot of intensity and with a lot of people sticking their hand in it.”
The relationship between Nike and one of its best-selling signature athletes, Kyrie Irving, has been rocky long before the recent antisemitic discourse. Earlier this year, the currently suspended Brooklyn Nets star took to Instagram to criticize an alleged leak of the now-canceled Kyrie 8. Kyrie later issued a statement promising to work with Nike to get the then-forthcoming sneaker design right. Between Kyrie’s unwavering stance on the COVID-19 vaccine, missing games for personal reasons, and clashes with his coaching staff and management, it was widely believed by many that the 8 would be Kyrie’s last signature sneaker with Nike. Now, Nike has announced that the relationship between the two sides is suspended, and the Kyrie 8 release has been canceled. This, of course, comes after a week-long media storm that resulted from Kyrie Irving sharing a link to a film with extreme antisemitic messaging.
In a statement first reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic /Stadium, Nike said, “At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism…We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.” Launched in 2014, the Nike Kyrie signature line has consistently been one of Nike’s top-selling basketball sneakers.