BOSTON — Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics offered a simple message to science teachers Monday.
“I’m sorry.”
And with that, Irving made clear he regrets publicly saying the Earth is flat.
Speaking Monday at the Forbes Under 30 summit in Boston, the flat-Earth topic Irving inserted himself into last year was discussed – and he said he didn’t realize the effect his claim would have once it went public.
“To all the science teachers, everybody coming up to me like, ‘You know I’ve to got to reteach my whole curriculum?’ I’m sorry,” Irving said as the room attending his session laughed. “I apologize. I apologize.”
Irving said he found some thoughts are best kept in “intimate conversations.”
This saga started in February 2017 when Irving questioned whether the Earth is flat on a podcast. It became a major story and even Commissioner Adam Silver – who, like Irving, went to Duke – was asked to offer his opinion.
“Kyrie and I went to the same college,” Silver said then. “He may have taken some different courses.”
Irving said Monday he would like to have the matter put to rest, and noted this was a good lesson of how words that come from influential people can have enormous power.
“At the time I was like huge into conspiracies,” Irving said. “And everybody’s been there.”
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