A group of Utah Jazz-supporting rabbis has claimed they were asked to put away signs reading "I'm a Jew and I'm proud" during a game against the Mavericks. Furthermore, they claim that the request was due to complaints from Kyrie Irving. Rabbi Avremi Zippel and three of his colleagues sat at the Delta Center with their signs with the intent of attracting Irving's attention due to his anti-Semitic comments in 2022. According to Zippel, Irving acknowledged the signs in the first quarter. The Mavs veteran reportedly told Zippel and his friends, "Nice, I'm a Jew, too. Don't gotta bring something like that to the game."
Soon after the interaction, Zippel claims security approached his group and told them to remove the signs. The official cited a rule about holding signs in courtside seats. However, Zippel also claims that another staffer later informed him that the removal was due to Irving filing a complaint with security. While Zippel said he had previously checked the rules about signs, the team issued a statement after the game. "No matter where someone is in the arena, if a sign becomes distracting or sparks an interaction with a player, we will ask them to remove it. During an out-of-bounds play in the first quarter of yesterday’s Jazz game against the Dallas Mavericks, there was a group sitting courtside whose signs sparked an interaction with a player that created a distraction and interfered with play of game," the Jazz said. Irving's representation denied that Irving complained to security. Furthermore the Jazz disputed the account of what they called a "part-time employee".
Kyrie Irving Says Return To Mavericks Was An "Easy Choice"
Kyrie Irving returned to the Mavericks after a brief explosion of free agency drama. Irving said he was "happy to come back" to Dallas after signing a three-year, $126 million deal within the first hour of free agency. "It wasn't too difficult of a process. Had Dallas as number one on my list. Obviously, I looked elsewhere -- salary cap opportunities, where I could fit in with other guys around the league. But there just wasn't much space. And me being 31 now, I had to have a different vantage point. And I felt like I could not just settle here but be happy to come back here and be welcomed back with a warm embrace."
He continued. "So I took everything into account. I took my time a few days before free agency just to be with my family, gauge how they felt about being in Dallas alongside me. And everybody was excited. I mean, even when I got traded here, midseason, a lot of my family was excited. They were just looking forward to me having a peace of mind just on the court and off the court. I had already dealt with enough past season or the past two seasons. So they knew that I just wanted a lot of that off my back and off my shoulders of feeling like I had to be Superman or I had to be perfect. So I think this is the best place to do it and continue to mature and grow as a man."
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