Kyrie Irving on Earth being flat

Kyrie appears on new episode of Richard Jefferson's and Channing Frye's podcast - http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/features/road-trip-170217

The fun part starts at around 12:00 mark, with the bomb being dropped at 15:45.

Draymond Green agrees with him. It's a good thing they've got basketball talent; I don't think they're cut out for the sciences, if nothing else.

Out of that Green interview I was not quite sure how serious he was about it...

But it's even more funny when you think about how much time they spend in the planes where they can literally look outside and see the curvature of Earth.

Actually that podcast itself was recorded 30000 ft (roughly 9 km) above sea level.

I hate those people who go through life with a "I didn't see it with my own eyes, so why should I trust experts" attitude.

Even if this is just really lame trolling by Kyrie, it still does damage. Ignorant people out there are always looking for public figures to legitimize their crazy beliefs.

I hate those people who go through life with a "I didn't see it with my own eyes, so why should I trust experts" attitude.

That's the sad part, he literally had the opportunity to see it with his own eyes roughly over 40 times ... just this season.

It's satire, people.

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Sorry to disappoint you all.

Satire, huh. If that's the case, he's made what passes for satire on Family Guy look good.

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I don't know if that's possible.

Yeah, fair call.

I mean, call me cynical, but saying "it was a joke/ satire" is a pretty common fallback when you get called out for saying something stupid or ridiculous (or ridiculously stupid). Even taken at face value, I'm not sure that he was all that effective in making his point, which is the purpose of satire at the end of the day. I'd also suggest that the problem of fake news runs deeper than what he's talking about. It's either faulty science or a misguided attempt at satire.

Whatever, I guess. Science and satire aren't his forte, but that's not what he's being paid for. And what he is being paid for, he does pretty damn well.

I don't think it's really a fallback. The whole podcast is them talking stupidly about conspiracies. At one point Frye talks about how he believes multiple assassins where involved in the JFK assassination.

I think it really goes down to them not realizing their position as famous athletes (Kyrie specifically) and how people will take what they say very seriously mainly because we don't get much insight on these players. I'd imagine in a podcast of them sighting a bunch of crazy conspiracies they didn't expect any big headlines.

Initially double-downing when asked about it probably didn't help either. That would've been the time to clarify its satirical nature, and drive the point home.

That's the part I don't get. My guess is during that interview he didn't know specifically what the reporter was referencing and maybe he thought it was about the episode in general? That's the only explanation I have for why he wouldn't just say it and be done.

But maybe he does believe it, and to that I say I don't really care. It doesn't affect me or change my life. Not sure why the uproar.

Well, if he does believe it, and he's going to put it out there, he's at least going to be called out on it. As far as it being damaging and whether or not we should care, there's two ways to look at that.

On one hand, it's not his area of expertise, and it can be written off as a silly thing a pro athlete who doesn't know what they're talking about said. Most people are probably rolling their eyes and dismissing it as a stupid thing to say, so you could say no harm done. At the same time, there's a lot of misinformation out there these days, a genuine backlash against science and people who do know their stuff by people who think they know better than the experts (because "it's all a conspiracy, wake up sheeple!"). If you're an athlete or celebrity with an audience and you're perpetuating falsehoods, you're contributing to the dumbing down of society, and that's not something to be proud of.

Anyway, let's say that it was bungled satire. I'm interested to know if Draymond Green is in on that, or whether Kyrie has just exposed his ignorance.

Only one way to find out. Time to bring Draymond on the podcast!

That'd be nuts, for sure.

It's satire, people.

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Sorry to disappoint you all.

My bad. I always assumed that satire was supposed to be funny or smart.

And if he doesn't actually believe that the Earth is flat, then this was just a weak troll that made everyone think he was a moron. Well played Kyrie.

Kyrie Irving continues to double down. Also, Shaq is in on it, too.

“It’s true. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. Yes, it is. Listen, there are three ways to manipulate the mind — what you read, what you see and what you hear. In school, first thing they teach us is, ‘Oh, Columbus discovered America,’ but when he got there, there were some fair-skinned people with the long hair smoking on the peace pipes. So, what does that tell you? Columbus didn’t discover America. So, listen, I drive from coast to coast, and this s*** is flat to me. I’m just saying. I drive from Florida to California all the time, and it’s flat to me. I do not go up and down at a 360-degree angle, and all that stuff about gravity, have you looked outside Atlanta lately and seen all these buildings? You mean to tell me that China is under us? China is under us? It’s not. The world is flat.”

Whenever Shaq says "listen" - and especially when he starts a sentence with the word - you can guarantee something ridiculously stupid is coming out of his mouth.

Also, it's kind of funny that he's always dismissing people's opinions because they can't match his NBA resume, yet he boldly disputes proven science despite having no qualifications in the field. I mean, his hypocrisy with arguments that are ad hominem or fallaciously appeal to authority is nothing new, but at least it was restricted to basketball, which is something he was good at and made a career of. He's way out of his depth here.

Nice try, Shaq.

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Listen, he's a four time NBA champion. He knows these things.

I hope north Korea completely annihilates the US; maybe leave Hawaii because I like it there. How can you say you (Shaq) have a doctorate and say shit like that? Or was he (Shaq) 'kidding' as well?

This was one of my favourite lines from the bit of that shitty podcast that I listened to.

Cleveland Cavaliers star Kyrie Irving was the first NBA player to reveal his flat-Earth beliefs, summarized as such: “Can you really think of us rotating around the sun, and all planets align, rotating in specific dates, being perpendicular with what’s going on with these ‘planets’ and stuff like this?”

What the actual fuck kind of sentence is this? lol

And again, these guys are likely to dismiss any criticism of their game, no matter how legitimate, because the people making the criticism haven't themselves played in the NBA, or never reached the same heights during their careers. Yet here they are, making these proclamations despite having no degrees in (or apparently, basic knowledge of) science, and being dismissive of the people actually in that field and holding those qualifications.