On the same day that Adidas cut ties with Ye—the rapper and songwriter formerly known as Kanye West—athletes Aaron Donald and Jaylen Brown released statements saying they were ending their relationships with Ye’s agency, Donda Sports, after a string of antisemitic comments in recent weeks.
“The recent comments and displays of hate and antisemitism are the exact opposite of how we choose to live our lives and raise our children,” Donald’s statement with his wife, Erica, read. “We find them to be irresponsible and go against everything we believe in as a family.”
Donald signed with the agency in May, citing the brand’s “family atmosphere.” Brown joined Donda Sports around the same time and recently had said he would stay with the company, before changing course Tuesday.
“In the past 24 hours, I’ve been able to reflect and better understand how my previous statements lack clarity in expressing my stance against recent insensitive public remarks and actions,” Brown wrote. “For that, I apologize. And in this, I seek to be as clear as possible. I have always, and will always, continue to stand strongly against any antisemitism, hate speech, misrepresentation, and oppressive rhetoric of any kind.”
Adidas severed ties with Ye after the artist wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at his Paris Fashion Week runway show. He followed that incident up by making antisemitic comments on Instagram and Twitter, including that he had constructed a plan to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
His actions resulted in suspensions from both platforms, in addition to the HBO show The Shop: Uninterrupted preventing an episode featuring Ye from airing. The rapper continued to spout antisemitic rhetoric in an appearance on the Drink Champs podcast last week, where he also claimed that he could say “antisemitic s--- and Adidas cannot drop me.”
