"They are enabling racism" - When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar blasted Kanye West and Kyrie Irving over antisemitic rhetoric
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former NBA star, has been an outspoken voice against racism, drawing from his own experiences of encountering "angry racism" in his teens.
In the summer of 1962, a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rode a bus through Virginia and North Carolina. He watched "Whites Only" signs pass by the window. The farther south the bus went, the more the future NBA star saw — and the more his trust in white people outside those he knew began to fade.
Kareem has spoken openly about that time, calling it a period of "angry racism" in his teens. The New York native admitted how close he came to being pulled in, but he wasn't.
That experience helped shape him into one of the game's most consistent, outspoken voices against racism — a voice KAJ used again in November 2022, when Kanye West and Kyrie Irving drew heavy criticism over antisemitic rhetoric.
Kanye and Kyrie fallout
To get why Abdul-Jabbar felt the need to speak up, you have to start with what Kanye and Kyrie actually did — and how far the fallout went.
In the fall of 2022, West , still one of the most followed figures on social media, began posting antisemitic statements to tens of millions. He said Jewish people had "owned the Black voice" and, in interviews, suggested Jewish executives controlled his career. He later said he would go "death con 3 on Jewish people. " By May 2025, Ye released a controversial song titled "Heil Hitler."
Irving 's role looked different, but landed the same way. The then-Brooklyn Nets star, now with the Dallas Mavericks , shared a link to the film "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America." It promoted Holocaust denial and the claim that Black people are the true descendants of the Biblical Israelites.
When pressed, Uncle Drew did not fully condemn it. Instead, the nine-time All-Star deflected, saying , "I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from."
His logic echoed a strain of thinking Louis Farrakhan had long pushed, something Abdul-Jabbar warned was more mainstream than many were willing to admit.
"What astounds me is not just the irrationality of it, but how self-destructive it is," he added . "Black people have to know that when they mouth antisemitism, they are using the exact same kind of reasoning that white supremacists use against blacks. They are enabling racism."
Antisemitism concerns
In July 2020, Abdul-Jabbar had already written a column about this. It came after antisemitic posts from Ice Cube, DeSean Jackson, Stephen Jackson, and Chelsea Handler. What struck him wasn't the posts. It was the silence after. Kareem called it "a shrug of meh-rage."
"If it's OK to discriminate against one group of people by hauling out cultural stereotypes without much pushback," the iconic big man wrote , "it must be OK to do the same to others. Illogic begets illogic."
Fellow Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was one of the few who backed him.
"We can't allow Black people to be prejudiced also, especially if we're asking for white folks to respect us, give us economic opportunity and things like that," he also said . "If you want respect, you got to give respect, but I don't understand how you beat hatred with more hatred."
When Abdul-Jabbar spoke with The Free Press in November 2022, he was asked directly how mainstream this strain of antisemitism was in the Black community. The six-time NBA champion said some were following leaders running the same playbook as certain white figures — building a following, accumulating power, then finding a scapegoat. In this case, Jews.
"They've aligned themselves with the very people who would choke out Black people, drag them behind a truck, keep them from voting, and maintain systemic racism for another hundred years. They are literally making not only their lives worse, but their children's lives. The fact that they can't see that means the racists have won," emphasized Cap.
The Los Angeles Lakers legend had been making this argument for years. So it was fitting that in October 2022 , the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center presented Abdul-Jabbar with their inaugural Ally Against Antisemitism Award.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on May 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
