Source: FREDERIC J. BROWN / Getty
The retired NBA great published a new piece on
his substack calling out Irving for posting an old Alex Jones video “to profit on our misery.” Furthermore, he said he now considers Irving to be “an example of what happens when the education system fails.”
Last year, Abdul-Jabbar took
the 7x All-Star to task for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and positioning himself as a martyr. “But now Irving is back and more destructive, insensitive, and just plain silly than before. He decided it would be a good idea to post a 2002 video clip from Infowars founder
Alex Jones,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “Yeah, the guy who has been on trial for denying
the Sandy Hook shootings and who previously admitted in open court that he’s a performer and his onscreen persona is just a character (that bilks millions of dollars from unaware viewers).”
In September, Irving posted a 15-second clip from 2002 in which Jones says the following: “There is tyrannical organization calling itself the ‘New World Order,’ pushing for worldwide government.
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 absolutely worthless.”
But Abdul-Jabbar expressed disgust with Irving for ever positively linking himself with Jones in the first place.
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“Alex Jones is one of the most despicable human beings alive and to associate with him means you share his stench,” the 75-year-old NBA legend wrote. “Kyrie Irving would be dismissed as a comical buffoon if it weren’t for his influence over young people who look up to athletes. When I look at some of the athletes who have used their status to actually improve society —
Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, Muhammad Ali,
Bill Russell, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe, and more — it becomes clear how much Irving has tarnished the reputations of all athletes who strive to be seen as more than dumb jocks.”
In October 2018, Irving admitted that he was big into conspiracy theories. But he did apologize for publicly pushing the “
flat earth theory” and said it was the result of going down a YouTube rabbit hole.
“I’m sorry about all that,”
he said when he was still a member of the Boston Celtics. “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.”
Check out how Twitter’s reacting to Abdul-Jabbar’s comments on Irving below:
