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Jackson apologizes for anti-Semitic tropes, says he used 'wrong words'

Stephen Maturen / Getty Images News / Getty

Former NBA player Stephen Jackson apologized Wednesday for using anti-Semitic language on social media.

Jackson appeared on "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon and said he used the "wrong words" in two Instagram videos that came out Tuesday and Wednesday.

"As I first stated when I got on here, I could've changed my words," Jackson said. "But there's nothing that I said that I support any of that. There's nothing that I said that I hate anybody."

The issue began Tuesday, when Jackson shared a social media post from Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson that contained a debunked anti-Semitic quote attributed to Adolf Hitler.

The NFL star was publicly reprimanded by the Eagles for the post, but Stephen Jackson said he was trying to point out hypocrisy between that discipline and what was faced by former Eagles player Riley Cooper - a white man who was caught on video using racial epithets in 2013.

"Maybe I could've been more clear of what I thought DeSean was correct about, but I didn't feel the need to go into a conversation that me and him had about how they were treating him and Riley Cooper," Stephen Jackson said.

"I could've changed those words, but the people that know me, my Jewish friends that I talked to today, they know that the last thing I was spewing was to defend Hitler or any other post. That's why I didn't speak on Hitler or even speak on his post. I spoke on exactly what I agreed with, and they was handling him different than they was handling Cooper. That's the end of it. They can twist it how they want, but that's exactly what it is. I don't hate nobody."

However, Jackson also appeared on a separate Instagram Live video on Wednesday, and used an anti-Semitic trope about Jewish involvement in banking. Despite referencing the "Rothchilds," Jackson told CNN that his words were misconstrued.

"Can you go back and watch the whole conversation, why we brought it up? It was talking about money," he said. "And when I said that, (the host) didn't take it the wrong way, he said that people with money wasn't associated with Jews. And I just asked him that, it wasn't an insult and he didn't take it as an insult."

Jackson did admit that the reference was a hurtful term to Jewish people.

"That never my intent ... I apologize for using wrong words," he said. "I apologize for using my words that I could've switched up, but that's the end of it. I know I love everybody, and that's how I always stand."

Jackson has been a public face of the fight for social justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd - a close friend he grew up with.

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