{"id":32382,"date":"2020-07-27T14:20:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T18:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=32382"},"modified":"2020-07-27T14:20:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T18:20:31","slug":"brooklyn-nets-kyrie-irving-commits-1-5-million-to-support-wnba-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2020\/07\/27\/brooklyn-nets-kyrie-irving-commits-1-5-million-to-support-wnba-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets&#8217; Kyrie Irving Commits $1.5 Million to Support WNBA Players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/brooklyn-nets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brooklyn Nets<\/a> star<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving <\/a><\/strong>has committed $1.5 million for WNBA players who have opted out of the 2020 season. Shams Charania of The Athletic was among the first to report the news, stating that the funds will support the players that opt-out due to professional or health-related reasons.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nets\u2019 Kyrie Irving has started a $1.5 million fund for WNBA players who choose to sit out the 2020 WNBA season due to personal, professional, health, and\/or safety-related reasons.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1287761506071982080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #111111; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 27px;\"><strong>Brooklyn Nets&#8217; Kyrie Irving Commits $1.5 Million to Support WNBA<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Kyrie Irving\u2019s Initiative To Distribute $1.5 Million Fund<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The funds are distributed through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kaiempowermentinitiative.com.\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">KAI Empowerment Initiative<\/a> launched by Irving. He wanted to help with the financial burden, in a league where WNBA players top salary is around $200,000. He also wanted to support those who have made the sacrifice to sit out to fight for social justice.<\/p>\n<p>WNBA players will have to apply for the fund by August 11th and will be notified by August 24th if they qualified for the fund.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Playing Basketball During Unprecedented Times<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The restart of the NBA and the start of the WNBA season during the coronavirus pandemic and times of social injustice has always been a reminder to players and the world that what\u2019s going on is much bigger than basketball.<\/p>\n<p>What makes Irving\u2019s gesture so significant is that he has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/nba\/news\/kyrie-irving-proposed-players-starting-their-own-league-in-call-urging-boycott-of-nba-season-per\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">outspoken on social justice issues <\/a>numerous times. He also has given his opinions on whether playing basketball is the right thing to do during these times.<\/p>\n<p>Irving hopes that this initiative will fully support players that have brought a great light into these issues and are using their careers as a platform to help many communities.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mystics guard Natasha Cloud has decided to opt out of the 2020 WNBA season to fight for social reform<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I have a responsibility to myself, to my community, and to my future children to fight for something that is much bigger than myself and the game of basketball.&quot; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mxjvbKQ8mG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/mxjvbKQ8mG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1275208021082206208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 22, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Washington Mystics guard <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/cloudna01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Natasha Cloud<\/a><\/strong> and Atlanta Dream guard <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/m\/montgre01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Renee Montgomery<\/a> <\/strong>have both opted out to fight for social reform. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/cambael01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Liz Cambage<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/charlti01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tina Charles, <\/a><\/strong>and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/t\/tolivkr01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong> Kristi Toliver <\/strong><\/a>have opted out due to health reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the WNBA has made a firm message that they will use their platform to educate others about racism and inequality in the world. The 2020 WNBA season tipped off Saturday, as players wore jerseys with \u201cBreonna Taylor\u201d on the back, to honor the 26-year-old EMT that was killed by the hand of the police in Louisville.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"0jmjq_7WTpJTuf2d55ukgw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1187746252\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'0jmjq_7WTpJTuf2d55ukgw',sig:'JO6lP2C9UdMN4EyKG-roTZbsCHtBeiWFR1IfEIJWfVE=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1187746252',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving has committed $1.5 million for WNBA players who have opted out of the 2020 season. Shams Charania of The Athletic was among the first to report the news, stating that the funds will support the players that opt-out due to professional or health-related reasons. Nets\u2019 Kyrie Irving has started a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2853,"featured_media":32398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,6,3],"tags":[231,406,96,1632],"class_list":["post-32382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-nets","category-news","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-nba","tag-wnba"],"modified_by":"Tyler Marling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2853"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}