Kyrie Irving is no stranger to conspiracy theories.
On Thursday, the Nets star shared a 2002 video of Alex Jones decrying a “New World Order” to his Instagram story.
“There is tyrannical organization calling itself the ‘New World Order,’ pushing for worldwide government,” Jones says in the clip on Instagram. “A cashless society. Total and complete tyranny. By centralizing and socializing healthcare, the state becomes god, basically, when it comes to your health. And by releasing diseases and viruses and plagues up on us, we basically get shoved into their system where human beings are absolutey worthless.”
In 2018, Irving, then with the Celtics, made headlines for claiming the Earth is flat. He later apologized for the stance.
“I was definitely at that time, ‘I’m a big conspiracy theorist. You can’t tell me anything.’ I’m sorry about all that,” he said in October 2018. “Even if you believe in that, don’t come out and say that stuff. That’s for intimate conversations because perception and how you’re received, it changes. I’m actually a smart-ass individual.”
Irving, who opted in to his one-year, $36.5 million deal for the 2022-23 season, missed two-thirds of last season by not adhering to local and International vaccine mandates. The decision — which he never explained publicly — made him a lightning rod. He went as far as calling himself a “martyr” during a May appearance on “The ETCs” podcast.
“It was like an ultimatum given to me,” he said. “It’s either you work and get vaccinated, just like this ultimatum was given to other people, or you sit at home and now we get to talk s–t about your decision and you personally and we make all these judgments. I had to deal with both ends of the spectrum. So I sat right in the middle and I knew I was doing the right thing for me. And I had to stay rooted in that decision.”