Kyrie Irving was just trolling when he claimed to believe that the Earth was actually flat, or so it seems.
Kyrie's "exploitation tactic" began back in February during the NBA's All-Star break when he joined his then-Cavaliers teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye on their "Road Trippin'" podcast and spoke about his flat Earth theory.
On Monday, during an interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub's "Toucher and Rich," Kyrie explained that his theory about the Earth being flat "spun it into a frenzy and proved exactly what I thought it would do in terms of how all this works."
The Celtics point guard told Toucher and Rich (via CBS Boston),
"Look, look. Here it is. All I want to do is be able to have that open conversation," Irving said. "It was all an exploitation tactic. It literally spun the world—your guys' world—it spun it into a frenzy and proved exactly what I thought it would do in terms of how all this works.
"It created a division, or, literally stand up there and let all these people threw tomatoes at me, or have somebody think I’m somehow a different intellectual person because I believe that the Earth is flat and you think the world is round. It created exactly that."
"It became like, because I think different, does that knock my intellectual capacity or the fact that I can think different things than you?" Irving asked. "That was the intent behind it. Do your own research—don't come to me and ask me. At the end of the day, you’re going to feel and believe the way you want to feel. But don't knock my life over that.
"When I do something, I know my intent. And it proved what I thought it would."
While Kyrie didn't come right out and say he was trolling when he made the flat Earth comments, it's pretty clear that his reason for doing so was to challenge people to think outside the box, rather than accepting everything they read, or hear, as an absolute truth.
That said, Kyrie had several chances to confirm that he's not really a flat Earth truther on today's radio appearance and failed to do so.
