American football player Aaron Donald and basketball star Jaylen Brown have terminated their contracts with Kanye West’s sports marketing agency after his anti-Semitic comments.
Musician West, now known as Ye, showed a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt design at Paris Fashion Week and days later posted anti-Semitic comments on Twitter.
Ye formally launched Donda Sports in May, with Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Donald and Boston Celtics guard Brown the first two athletes signed.
“Our family has made the decision to part ways with Donda Sports,” said reigning Super Bowl champion Donald and his wife Erica in a statement.
“The recent comments and displays of hate and anti-Semitism are the exact opposite of how we choose to live our lives and raise our children.”
On Monday NBA All-Star Brown said he planned to stay with Donda Sports, but reversed his decision a day later.
“I have always, and will always, continue to stand strongly against anti-Semitism, hate speech, misrepresentation and oppressive rhetoric of any kind,” he said in a statement.
Clothing giant Adidas cut ties with Ye on Tuesday, saying it does “not tolerate anti-Semitism and any other sort of hate speech”.
The sportswear brand previously said the Yeezy brand collaboration with Ye was one of the most successful in the company’s history.
Cutting the partnership means Adidas will make a net loss of £217m in 2022.
Ye, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has lost his position in Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires. It estimates that the loss of the Adidas partnership cuts Ye’s net worth from $1.5bn to $400m (£1.3bn to £349m).
