Kyrie Irving doesn’t actually believe the Earth is flat. Anymore. The Celtics All-Star point guard apologized during the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit for going too deep into a conspiracy theory that caused mass confusion in the basketball community.
“I’m sorry about all that,” Irving said, “to all the science teachers coming up to me like, ‘You know I’ve got to re-teach my whole curriculum?!’ I’m sorry. I apologize. I apologize.”
Kyrie apologizes for saying the world is flat. #Under30Summit pic.twitter.com/uJH3fNbPqS
— Nicole Yang (@nicolecyang) October 1, 2018
Irving initially said he got the idea from a video he watched on Instagram. But at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, he chalked it up to going down a YouTube rabbit hole and falling prey to the moment.
“At the time, I was huge into conspiracies. Everybody’s been there, like, ‘Yo, what’s going on with our world?” he joked. “You click a YouTube link and it’s like how deep does the rabbit hole go? You start telling all your friends, ‘Did you see that? Watch this video.’
“At the time I was innocent in it, but you realize the effect of the power of voice. And even if you believe in that, don’t come out and say that stuff. That’s for intimate conversations because perception, how you’re received, it just changes. Like, no I’m actually a smart ass individual. ... At the time, I just didn’t realize the effect. And I was definitely at that time of I’m a big conspiracy theorist, you can’t tell me anything.”
We’ve written extensively about Irving and his flat Earth theory, so much so that we have an entire timeline dedicated to the evolution of his belief. It started with Irving hopping on Richard Jefferson’s podcast and saying, “the Earth is broken.” Jefferson took that and made a shirt that said “Flat Earth Champions,” before inviting Irving back onto the podcast, where he doubled-down on his flat Earth theory.
Yeah, this stuff got out of control pretty quick.
This is the definition of, “it happens to the best of us.” Either way, there you have it, people. The man no longer believes the Earth is flat. So we can drop all the flat Earth jokes. For now.