Kyrie Irving covered up the Nike logo on his shoes and replaced it with a new look.
On Wednesday, the Brooklyn Nets star taped his Nike basketball shoes following his split with the company. The sportswear giant parted ways with Irving after he tweeted a link to an antisemitic film.
“I AM FREE Thank you God … I AM,” was written on one side of Irving’s shoe while the other side read, “logo here.”
Kyrie Irving covered up the Swoosh on his Nike Kyrie 3 with some messages following his official split with the company.
Irving is a sneaker free agent pic.twitter.com/xyKS4qN1qd
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 8, 2022
On Monday, a Nike rep told Fox Business that Irving ”was no longer a Nike athlete.”
Last month, Nike suspended the release of the Kyrie 8s and later terminated its contract with the NBA star. Irving’s self-titled sneakers were reportedly one of the top-five sellers for the company.
The Brooklyn Nets also suspended Irving for five games following the controversial tweet. The point guard returned to the game on November 20th in a matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“I don’t stand for anything close to hate speech, or antisemitism, or anything that is anti going against the human race,” Irving said. “I feel like we all should have an opportunity to speak for ourselves when things are assumed about us. And I feel it was necessary for me to stand in this place and take accountability for my actions because there was a way I should have handled all of this.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai made it clear that Irving was not antisemitic prior to his return.
