Paul Pierce stirs the pot on Flat-Earth theories

To be fair, I’m 90% sure Paul Pierce was kidding, but I guess anything is possible.

Following Kyrie Irving’s apology for spreading Flat-Earth fever, Paul decided to stir up some trouble to make up for it, flooding the internet with odd quotes about how long it would take to fly to distant locations around the world, and how the shape of the Earth may or may not affect those travel times.

“If I get on an airplane and I fly across the country, if the Earth is spinning it shouldn’t take me that long, right? It shouldn’t take me 12 hours to fly to China if the Earth is spinning,” Pierce said. “I should go straight up in the air, and if the Earth is moving on it’s axis I should just land in China in less than an hour.”

NESN 

Here’s the thing. Pierce, in his odd explanation of theoretical travel times, could not keep a straight face. I was first in line to call Kyrie a knucklehead when he doubled down on his silly theories, so I’m not out here to do damage control for Pierce via sports blog. It’s clear to me that Pierce was joking, but headlines will travel faster than truths, so here we are.

See for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzZinex42ds

Why apologize when the Earth is flat? Everybody knows this. Everyone knows this. 

Be honest – Does that look like the smile of somebody who believes what they’re saying?

On a serious note, I do wish more athletes, current and former, were more conscientious about what they say. I won’t get too bent out of shape with Pierce’s comments, but I am sick of this bizzaro timeline we’ve fallen into where facts and opinion are held on equal footing when they shouldn’t be. I won’t go all the way down the rabbit hole here on our country’s education system, and how our country manages it as well as James Dolan manages the Knicks, but it would be nice if people in all walks of life took more pride in giving informed, well-reasoned opinions instead of denying some of the most basic truths in favor of “expanding your consciousness”, or whatever the kids are calling it.

It’s all fun and games until people start joining cults. Let’s avoid the cults.