The many conspiracy theories o...

When a conversation between Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant became a viral video before the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, with online sleuths speculating that they were aligning their free-agency plans, which led them to the Brooklyn Nets four months later, Irving neither denied nor confirmed the contents of their discussion. "Anybody's stories or social media, I'm completely off it," he said. "I just don't have the care for it. It ruins locker rooms, it ruins confidence in people, and it's just a fictitious way of feeling validated in the world." He had a point. The video was shared with dubious intent, its contents speculative. If only he had heeded his own advice in the years before and since that viral moment, as he disseminated a series of conspiracy theories, each more perilous than the last. It has culminated in his suspension from the Nets for promoting the film "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America" and refusing to condemn its anti-Jewish themes. Irving's conspiratorial beliefs have coincided with his involvement in dismantling championship contenders in Cleveland, Boston and Brooklyn. Locker rooms and confidence at each stop have indeed been ruined. Irving reportedly met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday "to discuss this situation." In order to return to the court, Irving must meet a list of requirements determined by his team. Conditions include a verbal apology that demonstrates a clear understanding of the film's harmful contents, sensitivity training, consultation with leaders in Brooklyn's Jewish community and a meeting with Nets owner Joe Tsai. As we await a verdict on Irving's contrition, amid a report from veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein that "there is growing pessimism in various corners of the league that Kyrie Irving will ever play for the Nets again," it is important to consider how Irving arrived in his precarious position. There is a line that runs through Irving's conspiracy theories, from flat Eartherism to antisemitism, and it is one you can find in his Instagram feed.

Flat Earth

There was a time in February 2017 when Irving's flat-Earth conspiracy theory was the biggest story in sports and maybe beyond. Irving first shared his beliefs in a jovial conversation with Cleveland Cavaliers teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye for their "Road Trippin'" podcast. Irving was relaxed, only appropriately taking himself seriously when he was discussing misinformation in the education system. Irving doubled and tripled down on the flat-Earth theory, and then some, until he finally apologized for it at Forbes' Under 30 Summit in October 2018. In the 20 months between, he joined University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma and fellow Duke University product J.J. Redick for their podcasts. Irving was a little more guarded, and yet even more convincing as an actual conspiracy theorist. "Like, 'Loose Change,' some of the things that happened before that crazy attack, like you think back on history, and I’m just like, man. ... And of course people will be like, Who’s ‘they’? Everyone who has basically controlled us," Irving told Redick, who cut the diatribe short and steered the discussion elsewhere. This idea of "they" is one Irving repeated often and explored in more detail during his flat-Earth phase. "They create separation and race," he said, steering clear of specifying who he deems responsible. "They create separation and class. They create separation in different things that will ultimately spread people apart, and that's the way you control power. That's the way you control power in the whole entire world."

Anti-vaccination

In the years between Irving's public entry into conspiratorial thought and his opposition to COVID-19 vaccination, which cost him all but 29 games of the 2020-21 season, he grew more confrontational with the media. The conviviality of his podcast conversations was gone, replaced by a sense that his search for truth was misunderstood, even as questions about his beliefs dissipated in the wake of his flat-Earth apology. Then came news from Rolling Stone that Irving was among the leaders of the National Basketball Players Association who opposed the NBA's proposal for a vaccine mandate. In the exposé, Matt Sullivan wrote.