If Nets' Kyrie Irving is a beacon of light, why does he shroud his beliefs in ambiguity?

Irving wants to be a leader, but resists telling people exactly where his intellectual wanderings are taking him

Kyrie Irving calls himself a "beacon of light." He described himself this way in Thursday's contentious press conference at the Brooklyn Nets' practice facility, and in a prepared statement released the previous night by the Nets, the Anti-Defamation League and Irving himself. He also described himself this way last season, first on Instagram Live on media day, then after a game in January, both times discussing his decision not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

If Irving is beacon of light, though, then he wastes a surprising amount of words shrouding his beliefs in ambiguity. Irving has twice taken questions about his decision to publicize a film full of antisemitic conspiracy theories. At no point in either media session did he clearly explain why he promoted that particular film, "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America," on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. Irving said he watches documentaries to "elevate my consciousness," and he is "not going to stand down on anything that I believe in." Instead of making it clear where he stands, though, all that he clarified was that he resents anybody asking. 

At Defector, Diana Moskovitz wrote this week that Irving defended himself with "his characteristic defiant opacity," a phrase I haven't been able to get out of my head. For all of the moves Irving has pulled off on the court, he is never more evasive than when he's questioned about his beliefs. The Nets suspended him Thursday not just because he'd spread an antisemitic film and refused to condemn the ideas in it, but because, according to ESPN, he'd ghosted team owner Joe Tsai, declined to communicate with the Anti-Defamation League and rejected several opportunities to state on the record that he does not hold antisemitic beliefs. Irving said multiple times that he respects and embraces "all walks of life," as if that mere statement should quash any concerns people might have about his sharing of a film that alleges that Jewish people have been lying about who they are, lying about the Holocaust and want to "extort America" as part of "their plan for world domination." (That last bit is attributed in the film to Adolf Hitler; the quote is fake and Hitler's first name is spelled incorrectly.)