Kyrie Irving might have been trolling the masses when he came out as a flat-Earth truther. Trolling and lying, however, are two different things.
The Boston Celtics guard recently appeared on the first episode of “Holding Court,” a new podcast created by UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma. Plenty of topics were thrown around, including the blockbuster deal that landed Irving in Boston.
But perhaps the most interesting moment came when Auriemma asked Irving to explain this whole flat-Earth fiasco.
“The whole intent behind it, Coach, it wasn’t to bash science,” Irving said. “It wasn’t to like have the intent of starting a rage and be seen as this insane individual. When I started seeing comments and things about universal truths that I had known, like I had questions.”
Oh boy. Here comes everyone’s favorite pseudo-philosopher.
“When I started actually doing research on my own and figuring out that there is no real picture of Earth, not one real picture of Earth — and we haven’t been back to the moon since 1961 or 1969 — it becomes like conspiracy, too.”
No real pictures of Earth? Try this one, which was taken Oct. 12 from NASA’s DSCOVR spacecraft using a polychromatic camera:
22:17 on Thursday October 12th, over the South Pacific Ocean pic.twitter.com/JD14oiuZLp
— DSCOVR:EPIC (@dscovr_epic) October 14, 2017
And haven’t been back to the moon since 1969? Try 1972, when Apollo 17 successfully landed on the moon’s Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area.
Now, if you’re going to say all of these things are fake and part of some great conspiracy, then go for it. We get it, conspiracy theories are fun … except when today’s youth starts doubting even the most basic aspects of science.
As for Irving, you can add this to the growing list of things he’s said that make absolutely no sense.
Thumbnail photo via Jasen Vinlove/USA TODAY Sports Images
