Shaq Says Earth Is Flat, Backs Up Kyrie Irving: Here's Why People Think This

A few weeks ago NBA all-star Kyrie Irving said it, and now hall-of-famer Shaquille O'Neal has gotten on board with the false theory that the Earth is flat. The internet balked at Irving’s comments during the “Road Trippin’” podcast with his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson. Now former Los Angeles Laker O’Neal has gotten on board with Irving’s flat Earth theory.

Since Irving said, “This is not a conspiracy, the Earth is flat,” about 15 minutes into the podcast, people have been wondering if he meant it. But his comments on the Earth’s shape went further, “Anything that you have a particular question on...I think you need to do research on it,” he said. He went on to discuss the journey of life, and “the true journey of really becoming a complete individual and total freedom of thought.”

Read : Who Is Kyrie Irving? 7 Things To Know About Cleveland Cavaliers Point Guard

On Shaq’s podcast, “the Big Podcast with Shaq,” last Thursday he said “It’s true, the Earth is flat,” when asked about Irving’s comments. “There’s three ways to manipulate the mind, what you read, what you see and what you hear...I drive from coast to coast and this s**t looks flat to me,” he said followed by laughs from him, former NBA player Kevin Garnett and his hosts. They then discussed the possibility that Irving was commenting on the state of the news today, mainly fake news.

After Irving’s comments Twitter exploded and the internet was abuzz with talk of the Duke-educated pro’s disbelief in science. But in subsequent interviews, Irving said, “We got relevant questions what’s really going on in the world, like what’s really going on, but you know what I’m saying? What I really believe or, you know, who I really am? That would be nice.” When the reporter pressed and asked whether Irving believed that the world was actually flat he replied, “I mean does it matter? That’s what I’m asking. Does it matter to you that I think that the world is flat or that I think that the world is round?”

While both Irving’s and Shaq’s comments about the Earth being flat come with their own subtext to consider, one thing is clear, the Earth is round. Irving mentioned in the podcast how unbelievably incredible it is that the Earth and the other planets in our solar system are aligned so perfectly and that all of the conditions are perfect for human life, but just because it’s incredible does not mean that it must not be true.

Before we were able to see the Earth from afar thanks to satellite imaging, scientists and astronomers were still able to determine that the world was round. In fact, we’ve known the Earth was round since the ancient Greeks, more than two thousand years ago Aristotle declared the Earth was a sphere after he observed the way the constellations looked as he traveled further from the equator, according to NASA. If that isn’t enough proof for you, there are a number of easy experiments you can conduct on your own that will help you determine the spherical nature of the planet on which we live.