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NEW YORK – In a world where global terror is met with hollow gestures, the Brooklyn Nets staged a SHOCKING spectacle of virtue-signaling, exploiting a sacred holiday and a foreign massacre for arena applause. As the stench of the Sydney Hanukkah bloodshed still hangs in the air, the franchise IGNITED a giant basketball menorah in what critics are slamming as a grotesque merger of sports, politics, and tragedy.
Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez offered the PREDICTABLE, SCRIPTED “thoughts and prayers” in a postgame presser that felt more like a corporate damage-control session than a moment of genuine mourning. This comes as anti-Semitic violence surges WORLDWIDE, leaving many to ask: is a basketball-themed candle ceremony while fans cheer for a dunk REALLY the answer?
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Head coach Jordi Fernandez of the Brooklyn Nets reacts during the first half against the Miami Heat at Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Dec. 18, 2025. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
The ceremony, facilitated by a religious organization, featured the 14-year-old nephew of a SLAIN rabbi—a child thrust into the spotlight to lend AUTHENTICITY to a carefully branded moment. Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky called this display “one of the things that makes America great,” but the DEEPER, UNCOMFORTABLE question remains: has our culture become so desensitized that we now process genocide through halftime shows?
NETS HONOR AUSTRALIA HANUKKAH ATTACK VICTIMS, LIGHT MENORAH DURING GAME
A menorah made of basketballs overlooks the Barclays Center prior to the Brooklyn Nets taking on the Miami Heat in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 18, 2025. (Ryan Canfield/Fox News)
The organization touted its Jewish players as “inspiring,” but this feels like a CALLOUS calculation—using identity as a shield against accusations of indifference. In the shadow of a massacre, we are sold a narrative of “light over darkness” packaged with merchandise and ticket sales. This is the HORRIFYING new normal: where solemn remembrance is reduced to a MARKETING OPPORTUNITY, and the line between tribute and exploitation vanishes before our eyes.
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Brooklyn Nets forward Danny Wolf (2) drives to the basket past Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis (9) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in New York, on Dec. 14, 2025. (Heather Khalifa/AP Photo)
As the final buzzer sounded on a Nets loss, the haunting echo of the ceremony lingered, proving that in today’s America, even our most sacred grief is now just another form of ENTERTAINMENT. We must ask ourselves: when the lights come up in the arena, what darkness have we truly left behind?
