Whenever I have to play that 'two truths and a lie' game, my favorite truth to include is that I once served a pizza to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It was the mid-1990s, and I worked at Il Vicino pizzeria in Santa Fe, NM. I was taking orders at the counter and running the espresso machine, when a reallllly tall person walked in. After he ordered, I went to the back office and told my manager, "David, I think there's some kind of professional basketball player here." David went to the floor to check and came back and said, "Jenny, what is wrong with you? That's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!" and I laughed and said, "I thought he was someone famous!" Then I brought his pizza to his table and had a bit of a chat with him. He was incredibly nice and engaging, and since then, I've been a big fan. And he has never disappointed.
And continues to delight. He writes regularly on his Substack, and in one of his recent posts, he critiques Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving for believing and spreading conspiracy theories, stating that Irving possesses "gelatinous ignorance." Brian Niemietz of New York Daily News explains:
He also called on consumers to give the 30-year-old ball handler the hook following Irving's promotion of a clip showing "Infowars" host Alex Jones babbling a conspiracy theory.
"Kyrie Irving's thought process is an example of what happens when the education system fails," the 75-year-old NBA Hall of Famer wrote Sunday on the Substack online platform.
While Irving has a history of dabbling in disinformation, Abdul-Jabbar was referencing his Instagram post last month sharing a 2002 clip of Jones claiming a "New World Order" would release "diseases, and viruses, and plagues" upon the populace, seemingly referencing a baseless conspiracy theory about the spread of COVID-19.
"Alex Jones tried to warn us," Irving's post said.
Abdul-Jabbar, who has criticized Irving's reasoning skills in the past, wrote that the ballplayer "is back and more destructive, insensitive, and just plain silly than before."
"Kyrie Irving would be dismissed as a comical buffoon if it weren't for his influence over young people who look up to athletes," Abdul-Jabbar wrote.
You can read the rest of Niemietz article here, and you can find Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Substack here.
