(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has joined a long list of black celebrities defending NBA star Kyrie Irving and protesting his cancelation for a tweet that left-wing activists accused of being anti-Semitic.
“You are emasculating this man,” Smith said Friday on his show First Take, according to Breitbart News.
“… Black folks, we don’t get enough credit for this; we forgive people all the time,” he continued. “How many things have been accorded against us?”
He then compared Irving’s situation to that of social-justice martyr George Floyd, suggesting that both had been crushed by the Establishment over relatively minor offenses.
“[T]his is somebody—or a bunch of people out there—trying to put their knee and keep their knee on Kyrie’s neck,” Smith said. “Kyrie does not deserve that.”
Floyd’s death while in police custody in May 2020 helped spur months of Black Lives Matter-led riots. Some have sarcastically dubbed him “Saint Floyd of Fentanyl,” referring to his extensive criminal record and death of asphyxiation likely resulting from an overdose while resisting arrest.
Smith is the first to invoke Saint Floyd, but he is not the first black celebrity to side with Kyrie Irving against the media, the NBA and the Anti-Defamation League.
Rapper Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and boxer Floyd Mayweather both immediately showed support for Irving.
Ye has also been canceled for allegedly anti-Semitic remarks.
Over the weekend, comedian Dave Chappelle performed an SNL skit almost entirely dedicated to defending the two embattled celebs.
“Kanye got in so much trouble Kyrie got in trouble,” Chappelle said.
The famed comedian pointed out the hypocrisy of their cancelations. Chappelle said Irving broke the cardinal rule of Hollywood.
“You know, the rules of perception,” he explained. “If they’re [black], then it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence and you should never speak about it.”
George Floyd’s family, ironically, is suing Ye for supporting a documentary showing that Floyd died of an overdose.
Notably this is not the first scandal caused by Irving thinking for himself. He created a scandal last year by refusing to take the COVID jab.
