There’s a lot to unpack here, and every bit is enough to make your head spin.
It all started on Friday, when Reddit pointed out Kyrie Irving believes the Earth is flat. You know, as one does.
That claim comes courtesy of an appearance from Irving on Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson’s podcast. During their discussion, Irving earnestly, incorrectly and bafflingly stated the Earth is not a sphere (via ESPN.com):
“This is not even a conspiracy theory,” Irving said. … “The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat.
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“It’s right in front of our faces. I’m telling you, it’s right in front of our faces. They lie to us.”
On Friday night at the NBA’s All-Star festivities in New Orleans, ESPN’s Arash Markazi caught up with Irving … who doubled down on his claims.
“I think people should do their own research, man,” Irving told ESPN. “Hopefully they’ll either back my belief or they’ll throw it in the water. But I think it’s interesting for people to find out on their own.
“I’ve seen a lot of things that my educational system has said that was real that turned out to be completely fake. I don’t mind going against the grain in terms of my thoughts.”
Irving, of course, is flat-out wrong, and as a role model, voicing this view is kind of dangerous. There are kids out there listening to this nonsense who are going to parrot it at school and at home.
Draymond Green didn’t help settle the non-debate. The Warriors utility man decided to keep this conversation going with his answer at All-Star practice on Saturday. Surely we could trust Green to turn this into a Cavs-Warriors thing and poke at Irving’s (apparent and supposed) ignorance — except he didn’t take the bait for trash talk, instead supporting Irving’s right to his opinion.
“I don’t know, I haven’t done enough research, but it may be flat,” Green said about a planet that was determined to be globular centuries ago. “I wouldn’t say it’s crazy though, it’s just [Irving’s opinion]. How can you call someone’s opinions crazy? That’s what he thinks.”
Pointed out there are images of the Earth, proving it’s a sphere, Green said, “But who’s to say that picture’s telling the truth?”
Uh oh: Draymond is a Flat Earth/Kyrie Truther. pic.twitter.com/icJThyG7hx
— The Crossover (@TheCrossover) February 18, 2017
Which … fine. I tap out. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go use a children’s toy to prove the Earth is round:
I hate 2017. Please stress the importance of education.
This article originally appeared on Fox Sports.
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