On Monday, a Nike spokesperson reportedly confirmed that the company has permanently ended its relationship with Kyrie Irving.
The news comes about a month after the brand indefinitely suspended the partnership due to Irving’s peddling of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Irving had an extremely popular shoe line with Nike — but it canceled the release of the new version of the shoe, the Kyrie 8, in November.
While Nike co-founder Phil Knight previously said he expected the relationship would end for good, it wasn’t official until now.
“At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism,” Nike said in a statement when it originally put the relationship on hold. “We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the situation and its impact on everyone.”
Before Nike weighed in, the Nets suspended Irving for posting a movie with antisemitic tropes, and subsequently refusing to denounce the movie or state publicly that he was not antisemitic.
Irving finally posted an apology on Instagram the night he was suspended. He has since rejoined the team.
