Kyrie Irving says "you have to stand up" after offering to pay Azeez Al-Shaair's fine for wearing Hind Rajab's name

Kyrie Irving says he had no choice but to back Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair. "You have to stand up," the Dallas Mavericks guard said Wednesday night when asked why he offered to cover Al-Shaair's Week 1 NFL fine.

The league fined Al-Shaair $11,941 for wearing the name of Hind Rajab on his eye black during the Texans' season opener against the Buffalo Bills. Rajab was a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in January 2024. After the fine came down Irving posted on X: "I'll take care of his fine."

"He's a friend of mine," Irving said after the Mavericks' 128-110 season-opening loss to the Houston Rockets. "He's a brother that I consider in this revolution that a lot of this generation is building. It's a selfless act when you can show up for others that don't necessarily have a voice for themselves."

"Bigger than just me and Azeez"

Rajab was killed along with five other members of her family when Israeli forces opened fire on their car in Gaza City. She survived at first and called emergency dispatchers, but Israeli troops also fired on the ambulance sent to reach her. Twelve days later Rajab and her relatives were found dead in the car, with two medics dead nearby. The Israeli military acknowledged in August that it opened fire on the vehicles and said it had opened a criminal investigation.

"I believe most of us know what is happening around the world globally," Irving said. "When our tax dollars are going towards things that we don't necessarily agree with, you have to stand up."

He ended his answer with a simple line: "This mission is bigger than just me and Azeez."

Not the first fine

The NFL uniform policy bars players from showing personal messages without approval. Al-Shaair has been fined several times for eye black messages supporting Palestinians. He was fined $11,593 in January for writing "stop the genocide" during the Texans' wild-card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In Week 2 against the Cincinnati Bengals he wore the name Wafaa Akila, another Palestinian girl killed in Gaza, during warmups. He said a league official told him he could not play unless he removed it, so he did.

Al-Shaair has said the writing on his eye black is "just all names you can Google." In September he said he and Irving had "talked multiple times" and were "aligned on the cause, which is humanity."