At 2:44 p.m. ET on Oct. 27, roughly five hours before the Brooklyn Nets were set to take on the Dallas Mavericks at home, Kyrie Irving hit send on a tweet.
The post, without any text, was an Amazon link to a movie called "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America," centered on antisemitic tropes and Holocaust denial. Soon thereafter, the backlash and fallout began, the 12-year veteran yet again unwittingly engulfing the Brooklyn Nets and NBA in a controversy that transcended the game. Team sources say dread filled the minds of many, an all-too familiar feeling during Irving's three-and-a half year tenure with the Nets.