NBA legend Dwyane Wade tweeted out support for TV personality Nick Cannon after ViacomCBS fired Cannon over anti-Semitic remarks he made on his Cannon's Class podcast.
The former NBA shooting guard appears to have deleted the tweet, but not before a number of sports journalists and personalities quote tweeted him in response:
It’s become clear to me over the last few weeks that we need to have some serious, informed & uncomfortable conversations about anti-semitism in sports. https://t.co/ujJlEmQT2O
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) July 15, 2020
Wade soon offered up a clarification after he deleted the initial tweet:
I want to clarify my now deleted tweet. I was not supporting or condoning what Nick Cannon specifically said, but I had expressed my support of him owning the content and brand he helped create 🙏🏾
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) July 15, 2020
Cannon had hip-hop personality Professor Griff on the podcast, during which Griff claimed Black people were “true Hebrews.” Cannon seemed to agree with Griff's comments.
Via Lisa Respers France of CNN:
Cannon said that Griff was “speaking facts” and amplified Griff's views that Jewish people controlled the media, likening it to the power of the Rothschild family, banking scions who have long been targets of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
“The Masked Singer” host also disputed that such views were anti-Semitic because, Cannon said, Black people are the “true Hebrews.”
“It's never hate speech. You can't be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people,” he said. “When we are the same people who they want to be. That's our birthright. We are the true Hebrews.”
ViacomCBS severed ties with Cannon shortly thereafter.The sports world is still reeling from anti-Semitic comments made by Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson in which Jackson quoted Adolf Hitler on his Instagram story. Former NBA player Stephen Jackson came to D-Jax's defense, though both have since apologized and said they wish to educate themselves.
While Wade has offered up his clarification, his initial response seems to suggest — as Sarah Spain said — that anti-Semitism might be more of an ingrained attitude in the sporting world. At the very least, the former NBA star should have known better than to tweet what he did, and hopefully he'll use this as a learning experience.
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