While appearing as a guest host on a recent podcast with teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye — Road Trippin' with RJ & Channing — Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving made it very clear that he believes the Earth is, in fact, flat.
"This is not even a conspiracy. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat," Irving said adamantly. "All these things that particular groups, I won't even pinpoint one group, that they almost offer up this education. The fact that, in our lifetimes, that there are so many holes and so many pockets in our history. ... I'm telling you, it's right in front of our faces. They lie to us. ...
"For what I've known for as many years and what I've come to believe, what I've been taught, is that the Earth is round," Irving continued. "But if you really think about it from a landscape of the way we travel, the way we move, and the fact that — can you really think of us rotating around the sun and all planets aligned, rotating in specific dates, being perpendicular with what's going on with these planets?"
According to Jefferson, Irving put the word "planets" in air quotations.
"I'm gonna put planets (in air quotations) because everything that they send, or they want to say that they're sending, doesn't come back. ... There is no concrete information except for the information that they're giving us. They're particularly putting you in a direction of what to believe and what not to believe. The truth is right there, you've just got to go searching for it."
Irving, who was drafted No. 1 overall in 2011 after spending one year at Duke and is making his fourth All-Star appearance this weekend in New Orleans, doubled down on his comments at All-Star Media Day on Friday.
"I think people should do their own research, and then hopefully they'll either back my belief or they'll kind of throw it in the water," Irving told ESPN. "But I think it's interesting for people to find out on their own."
When asked if he's seen "pictures" of Earth?
"I've seen a lot of things that my educational system has said that was real and turned out to be completely fake, so I don't mind going against the grain."
When asked on Saturday about his stance, which was making its rounds all across the social media universe, an irritated Irving hammered his point home — "Does it matter?"
"The fact that it's a social phenomenon, that Kyrie thinks the world is flat, is hilarious to me," Irving told reporters. " ... I just feel like, the fact that it's even a conversation, is hilarious. That it could actually be news, it's hilarious to me."
Here's how the internet reacted during the 3-point contest Saturday night, where Irving lost to Eric Gordon:
(•_•)
<) )╯Kyrie's
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> Shot is
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> Flat
/ \
Since he has everybody spooked out thinking the world is flat, maybe Kyrie Irving should throw Frisbees in the 3-pt contest
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) February 19, 2017
At least Kyrie Irving offers evidence that his 3-point shot isn't flat
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) February 19, 2017
Kyrie sitting on a flat ball pic.twitter.com/PiPX8nmULx
— The 4th Scumkage (@iTameLightSkins) February 19, 2017
You just hope that Kyrie Irving doesn’t come out flat tonight.
— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) February 19, 2017
Seems like
Kyrie
is getting off
to a
flat start
— terps enthusiast (@NaturallyKatz) February 19, 2017Wonder how many guys in the 3-point field are trash talking Kyrie by telling him his shot looks flat.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 19, 2017