![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
NBA superstar Kyrie Irving has a well-earned reputation for both his elite talent and his unpredictable public commentary. Such expressions have included references to the Earth being flat, advocacy for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and reluctance to proceed with the 2020 basketball season in the midst of a pandemic and resurgent Black Lives Matter movement. He has become most notorious, however, for his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a position that earned him both praise and scorn. We argue in this article that Irving’s stance prioritizes a form of rugged individualism characterized by neoliberal politics and professional sport. His retreat into rugged individualism contributed to delegitimizing public health policies and prompted vocal defenses of his actions from political conservatives who had condemned his earlier forms of activism. The controversy over Irving’s vaccine hesitancy spotlights the rhetorical effect of his ambiguous voice and its implications for democratic contestation. More specifically, it speaks to the challenges of prioritizing the public good under the conditions of neoliberal political culture.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this manuscript. A preliminary version of this essay appeared in the Center for Sports Communication & Media's ”Politics in Sports Media” report (https://moody.utexas.edu/centers/sports-communication-media/politics-sports-media) and was presented at the 2022 National Communication Association convention in New Orleans.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Lewis, “Net’s Kyrie Irving Sits Courtside.”
2. Ibid.
3. Kosman and Lewis, “Inside One-Line Tweak.”
4. Deb, “Nets Are Fined.”
5. Deb, “Most N.B.A. Players Are Vaccinated.”T
6. Ecarma, “Kyrie Irving’s Anti-Vax Stance.”
7. Koons, “Kyrie Irving ‘Grateful’.”
8. Jordan, “Profanity from the Heart.”
9. Wojnarowski, “Sources: Kyrie Irving Plays.”
10. Joseph, “Kyrie Irving Apologized.”
11. On Irving’s support for Standing Rock, see Bontemps, “Kyrie Irving’s Roots”; on Irving’s comments about the NBA bubble, see Dator, “Kyrie Irving Was Completely Right.”
12. Billings,Wenner, and Hardin, “Introduction: Situating Communication.”
13. Ayman et al., “COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance”
14. On cases and fatalities, see “Covid Map”;on reasons for vaccine hesitancy, seeSallam, “COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy.”
15. Condit, “Public Health Experts,” 177, 216;Miller, “Presumptionsof Expertise.”
16. Ceccarelli, “Manufactured Scientific Controversy,”212.
17. Rowland and Jones, “Recasting the American Dream,”427.
18. Whedbee, “Authority, Freedom,” 171, 189.
19. Brown, Undoing the Demos,28, 17.
20. Brown, In the Ruins of Neoliberalism, 7.
21. Melamed, Represent and Destroy, 4.
22. Ibid., 6.
23. Cobb, “More Perfect Union.”
24. Kundnani, “Racial Constitution of Neoliberalism.”
25. Brown, Undoing the Demos, 176..
26. Honig, Public Things, 5.
27. Honig, “In the Streets.”
28. Asen, School Choice, 8.
29. On these reactions, see Bostdorff, “Obama, Trump, and Reflections”;; Enck-Wanzer, “Barack Obama, the Tea Party”; Harris andSteiner, “Beyond the Veil”; and Mercieca, Demagogue for President, 89, 98.
30. P. E.Johnson, I The People, 151.
31. Oriard, Sporting with the Gods, 255.
32. Nixon, Sport and the American Dream, 25.
33. Connolly, Fragility of Things, 24.
34. For more on this phenomenon, see Grano, “Risky Dispositions.”
35. Butterworth and Lever, “Coronavirus, College Football”
36. Billings, Wenner, and Hardin, “Introduction: Situating Communication,”xiv.
37. J.Johnson, “ ’Man’s Mouth is His Castle’,”7.
38. Paroske, “Deliberating International Science.”
39. Westermeyer, “Freedom over Fear.”
40. Boyd, Young, Black, Rich, 19.
41. Andrews, “Fact(s) of Michael Jordan’s Blackness.”
42. Boyd, Young, Black, Rich,6.
43. Griffin and Calafell, “Control, Discipline, and Punish,”128.
44. Khan, Curt Flood in the Media..
45. For an extended discussion of this see, Grano and Butterworth, “Rhetoric, Sport, and the Political.”
46. Cramer, “Postracism Mythology.”
47. Lavelle, “ ’Change Starts with Us’.”
48. Maraj, Black or Right, 15.
49. For more on the Kaepernick discourse, including the references by Trump, see Boykoff and Carrington, “Sporting Dissent”; Butterworth, “Sport and the Quest”;and Trimbur, “Taking a Knee.”
50. Sullivan, “Laura Ingraham Told.”
51. For more on this, see Bostdorff and O’Rourke, “Religion, Sport.”
52. For example, see Concepcion, “Kyrie Irving Is Pulling”;and Lawrence, “Hero, Villain or Troll?” In 2019, ESPN commentator Max Kellerman prompted debate with his claim that Irving was “the most skillful player in the history of basketball.” See Schmidt, “Max Kellerman Calls.”.
53. Apple Podcasts Preview, “Road Trippin.” 2
54. Russell, “Kyrie Irving Believes.”
55. Markazi (@ArashMarkazi). “Kyrie Irving Was Trending.”.
56. Siegel, “You Must Not.”
57. “Kyrie Irving Apologizes.”
58. Ibid.
59. Winfield, “Kyrie Irving Spent.”
60. A11 Even (@KyrieIrving). “My Prayers and Thoughts.”
61. Windhorst, “Kyrie Irving Finds.”
62. Watts, “ ’Voice’ and ‘Voicelessness’,” 191, 192.
63. Charania, “Sources Reveal Details.”
64. Wojnarowski, “Sources: Kyrie Irving Plays.”
65. Schwartz, “Kendrick Perkins Slams.”
66. Owens, “Report: NBA Coaches.”
67. Li and Johnson, “Brooklyn Nets Say.”
68. Bontemps, “Vaccine Requirements Specific.”
69. Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes). “Kyrie Irving Address.”
70. Deb, “Most N.B.A. Players.”
71. Podcast comments available in Daviset al., “Interview: Roundtable.”
72. Paliewicz and Bloomfield, “Of Markets, Masks,” 69.
73. Johnson, I, The People, 208, 225.
74. Robinson, “Opinion: Kyrie Irving’s Self Pitying Refusal.”
75. Reynolds, “Report: NBA Reaches 95%.”
76. Deb, “Most N.B.A. Players.”
77. Ecarma, “Kyrie Irving’s Anti-Vax Stance.”
78. Trump Jr. (@DonaldTrumpJr), “Kyrie Just Sacrificed.”
79. Ecarma, “Kyrie Irving’s Anti-Vax Stance.”
80. For more on Whitlock, see Plambeck, “Journalist Whose Sport.” New
81. Whitlock, “Kyrie Irving and Dave Chappelle.”
82. Butterworth and Lever, “Coronavirus, College Football.”
83. Grano, “Football after Fragmentation,”14.
84. Lyons, “Aaron Rodgers Finally Explained.”
85. Ibid.
86. Van Valkenburg, “Unfiltered Year.”
87. Ibid.
88. Pipia and Romero, “NFL Fines Aaron Rodgers.”
89. On Black masculinity, see Matlon, “Racial Capitalism.”On racialized labor under neoliberalism, see Kundnani, “Racial Constitution.”
90. Condit, “Public Health Experts.”
91. Yong, “How the Pandemic Defeated.”
92. J.Johnson, “Man’s Mouth,” 2.
93. Vasquez Reyes, “Disproportional Impact.”
94. Robinson, “Opinion: Kyrie Iriving’s Self Pitying Refusal.”
95. Quoted in Daviset al., “Interview: Roundtable.”
96. Romano, “Kanye West’s Antisemitic Spiral.”
97. Quoted in Baer, “Kyrie Irving Apologizes.”
98. Friedell, “Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving.”
99. Powell, “Kyrie Irving Offers.”
100. Foster, Sottile and Almasy, “Kyrie Irving Trade.”
101. Lev, “Kyrie Irving Requests.”
102. Honig, Public Things, 90.