NEW YORK — After a summer in which the Nets declined to offer Kyrie Irving a guaranteed max contract in the vicinity of $250 million, setting off a whirlwind sequence in which he and Kevin Durant attempted to flee Brooklyn before being compelled to remain, things should have been quiet. Irving only had to show that he could spend a season letting his game do the talking and he would walk away with exactly what he wanted.
For a time, it seemed Irving would keep the peace. He had not made a public statement since the summer’s dust-up had blown over, and the Nets appeared to be walking into the new season with a relatively clean slate. Of course it didn’t last.
Just 11 days before Brooklyn Nets Media Day, Irving reemerged to share one of the most dangerous conspiracy theories in human history.
On Thursday, Irving shared a video on his Instagram story titled “Alex Jones tried to warn us,” in which Jones, the disgraced and discredited conspiracy theorist, rants about the New World Order.
“Yes, there have been corrupt empires. Yes, they manipulate. Yes, there have been secret societies. Yes, there have been oligarchies throughout history,” Jones says in the clip. “And yes, today in 2002, there is a tyrannical organization calling itself the New World Order pushing for worldwide government, a cashless society, total and complete tyranny. By centralizing and socializing health care, the state becomes god basically with your health, and then by releasing diseases and viruses and plagues upon us, we then basically get shoved into their system where human beings are absolutely worthless.”
Jones is barely a month removed from being ordered to pay $49.3 million in damages for spreading lies about the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Merely associating with anything he has to say is enough to make Irving look ridiculous. But in digging deep into the crates for a sound bite, Irving publicly endorsed some of the most harmful ideas in modern society.
The New World Order is an umbrella term for a collection of conspiracy theories, encompassing Freemasonry and the Illuminati, all based on ideology taken from sources like “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a racist hoax book that was published in Russian alleging a Jewish attempt at world domination. The movement has deeply anti-Semitic roots, with its core text, the Protocols, insinuating itself into everything from Adolf Hitler’s Nazism to the most vile theories about 9/11. The most modern expression is the ridiculous QAnon movement, which has been responsible for a wide range of violent actions across the country by people convinced that the world is run by a secret Satanic cult.
This is not the first time Irving has shown a preoccupation with a fantastical group of global overlords. He is one of few NBA players — and the only NBA player in New York City — who chose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Amid that fight, Irving began following and liking posts from an Instagram account that claimed, among other things, that “the COVID-19 vaccine is fulfilling prophecy of Satan’s ultimate plan to enslave the human soul.” The supposed Satanic plan involved implanting Black people with microchips so that they could be connected to a master computer and controlled by “secret societies.”
Many laughed in 2017 when Irving proclaimed that the Earth is flat, before issuing something resembling an apology to science teachers who thoroughly debunked that claim shortly thereafter.
“At the time, I was, like, huge into conspiracies,” Irving said. “And everybody’s been there.”
In the aftermath of the Flat Earth circus, Irving was asked by the New York Times if he’d started the discussion just to prove that he was different.
He answered, in part, saying, “When you think something completely different, science has proven it, everyone has thought and believed this to be true, and then you say something on the opposing side, and it gets a reaction that’s not necessarily authentic at all. There’s just a ‘Hey, let’s get this preconceived notion about who he is as a person,’ you have no idea. I really wanted to put that on the biggest stage of ‘now it becomes your side vs. my side.’ At the end of the day, does it really matter?”
In other words, he was pushing the envelope because he didn’t like the way people reacted to him, and the content itself was not necessarily the point. But even then, Irving’s influence as a superstar point guard giving voice to conspiracy was evident. Teachers found it difficult to dissuade their students of the idea that the Earth is flat after they heard Irving say it was.
Irving has real influence as an ambassador for the game, one of the most skilled players in NBA history. He is endorsed by sneaker giant Nike and serves as a vice president for the National Basketball Player’s Association. What he says absolutely matters, for better and, more often, for worse.
