UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma wants to bring Kyrie Irving back down to Earth, but the Boston Celtics star isn't having it.
On his "Holding Court" podcast, the 11-time NCAA Women's Champion coach probed Irving about previous comments he made regarding the curvature of the only inhabitable planet in the solar system.
In other words: does Irving really believe the Earth is flat? The point guard explained the thought process behind his unconventional sentiments.
"The whole intent behind it, Coach, it wasn’t to bash science," Irving said. "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."
Irving continued: "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.'"
Though the four-time All-Star continued to cast doubt over the authenticity of images taken from space as well as the Moon landings, Irving's chief concern is simply that people remain curious and skeptical about the world around them.
"The whole intent was for people to open up and do their own research," Irving told Auriemma. "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.'"
