Draymond: “[Earth] may be flat”

The Golden State Warriors’ All-Star power forward Draymond Green spoke to media and defended Kyrie Irving’s flat Earth claims.

The biggest storyline during All-Star Weekend has been the relationship between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Every single word and move by either of those stars has been dissected and analyzed. Whether or not they’ll play together in the All-Star Game has been a huge topic of discussion.

In a surprising turn of events, the second biggest storyline has been whether or not the Earth is flat. Yes, seriously. That “debate” has taken over the NBA.

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It started when Sports Illustrated posted a story referencing Kyrie Irving’s appearance on teammates Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson’s podcast. In it, the All-Star point guard revealed that he believes the Earth is flat. He blamed the education system for feeding people fabricated lies.

Twitter completely roasted him for it. Except the weird part of Twitter that is really just an extension of Facebook with all of the flat Earthers out there. And Wilson Chandler, who agreed with him.

Draymond Green is usually the voice of reason. Sure, he’s a bit explosive and he can let his emotions get the best of him, but he’s a very smart guy. He’s honest and generally provides insightful responses.

And, yet, he isn’t immune to weird conspiracy theories either.

Yes, you heard that correctly. That is Draymond Green, an educated professional, saying that it’s possible that the Earth is flat. He told reporters that “I don’t know, I haven’t done enough research, but it may be flat.”

He also defended Irving by saying his opinion isn’t crazy. He argued that it couldn’t be crazy because it is, after all, an opinion. He took it even further by saying that the photos of the marble shaped planet can be faked because his iPhone has a panoramic photo feature that makes things look round.

Green graduated from Michigan State University. He’s intelligent. And even this response is very measured and, on the surface, it’s reasonable. But it’s not.

There’s science that proves the Earth isn’t flat. I choose to believe officials that are trained to do this instead of some people with a YouTube account and too much time on their hands. The Earth is not flat.

Now, Green could be puling all of our legs. He’s a joker and this would be a good one considering how up in arms people are about Irving’s statements. He could very well be messing with us because he can.

It’s also possible that Green didn’t want to make fun of his friend. Despite what happened in the NBA Finals, he and Irving are very good friends. They played together for Team USA and are both on Nike.

Or, in the most likely situation, he’s pulling a #LightYears ahead move. Green and the rest of the Warriors all started their recruitment of Durant early on. They had been trying to convince him long before free agency actually started.

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Maybe Green is buttering Irving up. So when LeBron James gets tired of him or throws him under the bus, he’ll have a place to go. I’d have to check the advanced metrics, but I think Irving has been a little better than Ian Clark and Shaun Livingston this year so he might be an upgrade off the bench.

Ultimately, creating your own facts and brushing off ridiculous statements as acceptable because they’re “opinion” is dangerous. But it’s very interesting how this is playing out. It’s unexpected.

Perhaps the whole NBA is full of conspiracy theorists that can pool their money and fund a trip to the ice wall on the edge of the flat Earth.