SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz two-way guard Justin Wright-Foreman apologized Friday morning for retweeting a post that supported Nick Cannon’s recent anti-Semitic remarks.
“I wasn’t educated enough on the topic,” Wright-Foreman said. “I apologize. I did not mean to offend anybody. Those are not my beliefs and values. I just want to once again say I apologize.”
On Wednesday Wright-Foreman retweeted a post from the account @zdg_ that said, “Nick Cannon said nothing wrong. Everyone just sensitive and hates the truth.”
The tweet refers to anti-Semitic remarks made by Cannon on an episode of his podcast in which he interviewed Richard Griffin, aka Professor Griff, a member of rap group Public Enemy who has publicly made homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks in the past.
In the recent podcast, Cannon agreed with Griffin’s anti-Semitic remarks as the two discussed conspiracy theories about the Jewish community.
After receiving backlash for his retweet supporting Cannon, Wright-Foreman retweeted another post on Thursday that read, “I live with no regrets, ain’t taking back nothing I said.”
Between the late-night hours of Thursday and Friday morning, Wright-Foreman deleted both of the retweets from his account.
Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder also commented on the situation, saying he had spoken with Wright-Foreman about the tweets and stressed the importance of education.
“We’ve talked to him, I’ve talked to him, he’s very aware, painfully aware that he made a mistake,” Snyder said. “I think it’s something that he’s remorseful about. It won’t happen again. The issue of education for all of us is paramount and in the forefront of our minds and I know it is in Justin’s as well.”
On Thursday night, Salt Lake City-based Orthodox Rabbi Avremi Zippel, who for the last four years has lit a Menorah at Vivint Arena to celebrate Hanukkah as part of Jewish Heritage Night at the arena, posted on social media his disappointment in seeing anti-Semitic rhetoric coming from a member of the Jazz organization.
In an interview with the Deseret News Friday, Rabbi Zippel said that because of his longstanding relationship with the Jazz, he felt it necessary to condemn the message that was being shared.
“The initial reaction was definitely one of sadness and pain,” Rabbi Zippel said. “I was surprised that that sort of language was being shared by someone who has that kind of platform. Justin is an NBA player and he has that kind of voice. Initially it was hurtful and something that I wanted to let my community know I didn’t think was OK and that it would be brought to the Jazz’s attention.”
Steve Starks, CEO of the Larry H. Miller Group, which owns the Utah Jazz, called Rabbi Zippel’s father, Rabbi Benny Zippel, on Thursday night to personally apologize for the events that had taken place. Starks told Rabbi Benny Zippel that the sentiments retweeted by Wright-Foreman were not reflective of the organization, would not be tolerated and that a further apology would come Friday.
The Jazz made both Snyder and Wright-Foreman available to talk about the incident with reporters Friday. Though the team has not released an official statement, Rabbi Avremi Zippel said he hopes one is forthcoming.
Wright-Foreman is a rookie out of Hofstra who signed a two-way contract with the Jazz in July 2019. Two-way players split their time between an NBA team and their G League affiliate. Players on two-way contracts can spend up to 45 days throughout the course of the season with the NBA team, during which time they are paid an NBA wage.
To date, Wright-Foreman has played in one NBA game with the Jazz. In a normal season, two-way players are not eligible for postseason play unless their contract is converted to a full NBA deal before the playoffs. In the NBA’s restart in Orlando, two-way players were allowed to join the teams and can be used as replacement players in the event that a player is injured or contracts COVID-19. As such, Wright-Foreman and fellow two-way player Jarrell Brantley are with the Jazz in Orlando.
On Friday, Wright-Foreman said that he wasn’t aware of what Cannon had said on his podcast and indicated that he had been idly scrolling through Twitter when he chose to retweet the post from @zdg_.
“I didn’t have any knowledge about the actual retweet,” he said. “I just want to apologize to everybody. I didn’t mean to offend anybody, that’s not me.”
Rabbi Avremi Zippel, as the leader of a community that unfortunately has experience in dealing with hateful rhetoric, said he was pleased by Snyder’s comments and Wright-Foreman’s apology and noted his appreciation of someone willing to take ownership of their actions and recognize the impact they have.
“For someone like Justin, whose platform is growing and as such his sphere of influence grows now that he’s with the Jazz, it’s a learning opportunity for him in how powerful his words are and how impactful his words are and that even a retweet reverberates around the world and can send a very wrong message,” Rabbi Avremi Zippel said.
In addition to hoping that this will all be a learning experience for Wright-Foreman, Rabbi Avremi Zippel expressed his hope that all learn from the NBA player’s mistake. While Wright-Foreman’s platform put this issue into the spotlight in a short amount of time, everyone is susceptible to negligible social media behavior and now more than ever it’s important to understand what we are saying, he said.
“We live in a society today where people’s random thoughts can be shared in an instant and shared around the globe like wildfire in likes and retweets and it all moves so fast and gets beyond our control,” Rabbi Avremi Zippel said. “This is a very powerful learning opportunity for everyone. You’re scrolling on Twitter you see a thought, you hit retweet, no big deal and you thought it sounded good in the moment. But that does leave a powerful impact on a community and can leave a lot of people hurt. It’s a good opportunity to learn for the future to choose our words more carefully.”