NBA All-Star Weekend is a chance to learn a little bit more about the league’s star players thanks to the numerous availabilities and interview opportunities.
This year, one thing we’ve learned is that Kyrie Irving is a flat Earth truther, and on Saturday Draymond Green and LeBron James stuck up for Irving in his belief. It’s made for an interesting weekend of discussion around a topic that I don’t think anyone expected to be a hot button issue in New Orleans — and also has caused some to question whether it’s all an elaborate troll job by Irving and the rest.
On Saturday night, prior to the festivities in the Smoothie King Center, NBA commissioner Adam Silver hosted a press conference and, yes, the flat Earth issue came up. Silver, who is a Duke grad, chuckled and offered his answer.
“Kyrie and I went to the same college [laughter],” said Silver. “He may have taken some different courses than I did. But in all seriousness, as he made clear today, he was trying to be provocative, and I think it was effective. I think it was a larger comment on the sort of so-called fake news debate that’s going on in our society right now in terms of what’s reported, and it led to an interesting discussion. But personally, I believe the world is round.”
At the rate we’re going, we’ll have everyone in the NBA’s take on the flat vs. round Earth debate (which it’s still amazing that this is a real thing) and for those keeping score at home, put Silver on the side of the round Earth.
