It’s hard to figure out why pro basketball players like Kyrie Irving keep weighing in on certain subjects only to end up sounding like unhinged conspiracy theorists, but here we are. The latest entrant is Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, who apparently doesn’t believe man went to the Moon.
Curry is coming back from injury, so it might be easy to say pain meds rattled him or something but no—he was just talking over a wide range of subjects on Winging It, a podcast hosted by Vince Carter, Kent Bazemore, and Annie Finberg.
New episode of the #WingingItPodcast with a bunch of 🐐🐐🐐 in the gentlemen’s lounge! Special thanks to the @ringer 🥰 for the opportunity! pic.twitter.com/8UrQx267LV
— Kenny Baze (@24Bazemore) December 10, 2018
The New York Times reports that Curry and his teammate Andre Iguodala talked about a number of things with the hosts, including dinosaur noises. It was Curry who pulled a lefthand turn, then, and said, “We ever been to the moon?”
Bazemore and Iguodala actually said no, but everyone is picking on Curry because he followed up with this: “They’re going to come get us. Sorry, I don’t want to start conspiracies.”
This week on #WingingItPod, @mrvincecarter15, @24Bazemore, and @AnnieFinberg are joined by @StephenCurry30 and @andre to share stories about A.I. and discuss comparisons between Trae Young and Steph https://t.co/golwAqEeIM
— The Ringer (@ringer) December 10, 2018
Asked to explain, Curry said he really didn’t think the Moon landing was real. So the group discussion swung into conspiracy land anyway, up to the old theory that 2001: A Space Odyssey director Stanley Kubrick had staged the event.
Likely heaving a heavy, exasperated sigh, NASA weighed in, reports the Times.
“We’d love for Mr. Curry to tour the lunar lab at our Johnson Space Center in Houston, perhaps the next time the Warriors are in town to play the Rockets,” said Allard Beutel, a NASA spokesman. “We have hundreds of pounds of moon rocks stored there, and the Apollo mission control. During his visit, he can see firsthand what we did 50 years ago, as well as what we’re doing now to go back to the moon in the coming years, but this time to stay.”
It was big of NASA to not throw something against the wall and shout, “OH, COME ON,” considering that they have to be really tired of this kind of thing by now.
Social media reactions were all over the place.
.@StephenCurry30 calling into question the greatest accomplishment in human history does such an incredible disservice to the men and women who sacrificed so much to get us to the moon. It's incredibly irresponsible for someone with your platform to ignore facts like this.
— Max Lederman (@Max_Lederman) December 10, 2018
Steph Curry got people in they feelings over his opinion of the moon landing. When none of them have any proof has ever happened other than the US telling them it happened. Question, if we got there in the sixties how come we never tried again. #nasa #fakelanding
— It's Getting Real (@cmoney73) December 10, 2018
From the league that brought you "hey maybe the earth is flat," apparently we now have "the moon landing never happened." Yes, on a recent podcast, Steph Curry, Vince Carter, Andre Iguodala & Kent Bazemore said they buy into the conspiracy theory that the whole thing was faked. pic.twitter.com/QNzWdg6PMF
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) December 10, 2018
Steph Curry's take that the moon landing was faked is a lot less preposterous than Kyrie's assertion that the Earth is Flat.
that's not to say i agree with Curry, but that comparison is some false equivalence.
— Tim (@ChuckShots) December 10, 2018
How is it a disservice to question something nobody has undeniable proof has ever happened. You really think that early in space technology the US knew how to get to the moon and come back. Why haven't we been back since?
— It's Getting Real (@cmoney73) December 10, 2018
Of course we went to the Moon. And we haven’t been back because it was a massively expensive undertaking and political agendas de-funded the effort in the mid-70s. Remaining money went into the space shuttle program.
While no one should have to even defend this huge, historic feat at this point, it’s worth it to go even further and point out that there’s no way Stanley Kubrick would ever have taken money to create that grainy Apollo footage.
It’s good when pro athletes express opinions on politics and problems that affect society at large—they shed light on serious social issues. But where whack-ass conspiracy stuff is concerned, maybe it’s time for teams to put in a request that players try and avoid sounding like total kooks.