NBA Star Kyrie Irving Buys a House for George Floyd’s Family
The basketball star Kyrie Irving has bought George Floyd‘s family a house.
The Brooklyn Nets guard has been a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements. Floyd died on Memorial Day after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
Floyd’s 7-year-old daughter, Gianna, is “getting so much love from not just us, but from people all around the world who are showing support,” the former NBA player Stephen Jackson said on “The Rematch” podcast. Jackson and Floyd were childhood friends, and had remained close.
“I had a lot of my friends—Kyrie Irving bought them a house. Lil Wayne’s manager bought them a Mercedes-Benz. Barbra Streisand gave them stock in Disney.”
Irving’s publicist, Ashley Blackwood, confirmed to CNN that Irving had bought the home for Floyd’s family. She did not provide any additional details on the home or its location.
Irving “wanted to help George’s family, and I let him know that a house was what they needed at that time, and he made it happen in a heartbeat,” Jackson said in a statement obtained by CNN.
It’s not the first time Irving has become involved in a case of racial injustice. In July, he appeared in a TV special with the rapper Common, to seek action in the death of Breonna Taylor.
Taylor, another unarmed Black person, died after police officers entered her Louisville, KY, home in the middle of the night. Three officers have been fired since September in relation to the shooting, but no one has been charged in her death.