Kyrie Irving #11 of the Boston Celtics looks on during the second quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at TD Garden on October 18, 2017, in Boston, Massachusetts. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images/AFP
Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving made headlines outside of basketball last February, when he made public his belief that the world is flat.
READ: Kyrie Irving: Reaction to world is flat comment ‘hilarious’
Despite the backlash from netizens, the 25-year-old former Duke product has no intention of retracting his sentiments, as he stands by his bold claim.
In an appearance on the “Holding Court” podcast of 11-time NCAA Women’s Champion coach Geno Auriemma, Irving expounded the thought process behind going against the assumptions made by scientists and experts.
“The whole intent behind it, Coach, it wasn’t to bash science,” he said, as relayed by Bleacher Report. “It wasn’t to 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, I had questions.”
He added: “I won’t sit here and say that I know, but when I started actually doing research on my own and figuring out that there is no real picture of Earth, there’s not one picture of Earth – and we haven’t been back to the Moon since 1961 or 1969 – and it becomes like conspiracy, too, like, ‘OK, let me question this.'”
The usually reserved Irving also issued a challenge to his doubters to conduct their own studies and not rely on the information made by experts.
“The whole intent was for people to open up and do their own research,” he said. “It wasn’t to say, ‘OK, let me figure out and go against science. Let me go against what I’ve been told is right, and all this stuff.’ It was just literally with the intent of, ‘Just to wake up and do your own research for once, instead of just assuming everything that’s told to you.'”
Meanwhile, Irving joins a long list of celebrity “flat-earthers” including B.O.B and Tila Tequila. Khristian Ibarrola /ra
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