A group of rabbis has been told to take down an “I’m Jewish and I’m proud” sign at a Utah Jazz game on Monday after it allegedly caused a “distraction” to Dallas Mavericks player Kyrie Irving.
Rabbi Avremi Zippel, a lifelong Jazz fan, said he got tickets for himself, his brother, his father and a friend to sit courtside at the Delta Center to watch the basketball team play the Mavericks and protest Irving, who was suspended by the Brooklyn Nets in 2022 for tweeting links to antisemitic films and his initial failure to reject them.
The rabbi said he sat down before the game and “with a fine tooth comb, went through the Jazz code of conduct and the NBA code of conduct” to determine if he could bring such a sign to the game — and thought it would be allowed, he told the Salt Lake Tribune.
But in the first quarter, Irving approached the sideline to receive a pass and took notice of a rabbi sitting near their marker, Zippel said.
“He came over, he saw the sign, and he said, ‘Good, I’m Jewish too,'” Zippel recounted, saying Irving also showed them the Star of David tattoo he had.
The rabbi said he regretted the comment but didn’t want to cause a scene, so he simply replied: “Good, happy New Year, man.”
At that point, Zippel said Irving became angry and told him there was “no need to bring him to the game.”
Rabbi Avremi Zippel, his brother, his father and a friend held a sign at Monday night’s Utah Jazz vs. Dallas Mavericks game proclaiming “I’m Jewish and I’m proud.” X/Avremi Zippel
The incident only escalated from there, with Zippel claiming the Mavericks guard spoke to security personnel and Jazz officials came to check the rabbi’s ticket and told them to put the sign down.
“That Kyrie Irving is a coward with the backbone of a goldfish is not news to me,” Zippel write on X following the incident. “That the Mavericks organization is protecting him is, unfortunately, not news to me.”
“I want to be very clear: We never mocked Kyrie,” Zippel added to the Deseret News.
“The message is simple: I am a Jew, I am a proud Jew and I am here tonight because of what my people have endured.”
The signs allegedly caused “distraction” to Dallas Mavericks player Kyrie Irving. Getty Images
In a statement, the Utah Jazz said the signs violated its spectator code of conduct — which states that games must be played “without interruption or disturbance.”
“During an out-of-bounds play in the first quarter of the Jazz’s game yesterday against the Dallas Mavericks, there was a group sitting courtside whose sign sparked interaction with the players that created a disturbance and disrupted the game,” he said.
Jazz officials also noted that it was a “part-time employee” who told the rabbi that the sign was problematic because the content was “incorrect.”
“The issue is the disruptive interaction caused by the use of the sign, not the content of the sign,” the team said.
Rabbi Avremi Zippel writes about the experience at X. X/Avremi Zippel
Responding to the statement, Zippel said: “The Jazz seem to fully acknowledge that we did not say anything to Kyrie [but that] Kyrie walked over, saw the sign and chose to comment on it.
“So this idea that you have a sign that triggers an interaction with the player, we’re going to ask you to take that sign down, I want to know where that precedent leads to, I want to know where it goes, how far it can be used,” he said. to the Tribune.
Zippel also writes on X the “bottom line” is that “there is one person in a building of 18,000+ triggered by [a] a sign that says ‘I’m Jewish and I’m proud.’
“Why it bothers him, so much as to trigger an interaction, should be the real question anyone is asking,” he said.
“Unfortunately, instead of just talking about this quietly causing misunderstandings and letting this remain a minor confusion, the Jazz sided with the triggered player and doubled down. That was very disappointing to me.”
Zippel said he remains a lifelong Jazz fan and will continue to support the team, which he says has been good to the Jewish community in the past. AP
Still, Zippel said he remains a lifelong Jazz fan and will continue to support the team.
“My experience with Jazz over the years has been very positive and very supportive,” he told the Deseret News.
“The team was one of the first NBA organizations to issue a statement in support of Israel because the war just started,” he said, adding that he recently had the opportunity to light a menorah at a game and celebrate Jewish heritage.
The Post reached out to Mavericks for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
