Steph Curry is one of the most beloved and respected athletes in America. I know he makes tens of millions of dollars from his Warriors contract and all of his endorsement deals and sponsorships. He’s educated too – he got through three years at Davidson College before leaving after his junior year to go pro. He’s currently 30 years old and richer than God. And in all that time, I guess Steph never really considered that American astronauts really did land on the moon? Steph appeared on a podcast and the conversation turned to the moon landing, and it turns out that Steph is a Moon Landing Truther.
Steph Curry revealed some out of this world takes on American achievements in astronautics on a recent episode of the Winging It podcast, hosted by fellow NBA players Vince Carter and Kent Bazemore, along with Atlanta Hawks employee Annie Finberg. After questioning how paleontologists are able to determine what dinosaurs sounded like, Curry suddenly asked the others, “We ever been to the moon?”
In response, Carter and Bazemore both said no, and the father of three joked, “They’re going to come get us. I don’t think so either … Sorry, I don’t want to start conspiracies.”
After Finberg expressed some skepticism, the group then discussed one of the most popular theories on the subject — that Stanley Kubrick staged the iconic video of the 1969 moon landing. (The claims that Kubrick admitted to “perpetrating a huge fraud on the American public” in an interview have since been disproven.)
Even though the entire conversation seemed mostly light-hearted, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was apparently compelled to get involved, issuing a statement directly to Curry.
“There’s lots of evidence NASA landed 12 American astronauts on the Moon from 1969 – 1972,” NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel said in the statement obtained by PEOPLE. “We’d love for Mr. Curry to tour the lunar lab at our Johnson Space Center in Houston, perhaps the next time the Warriors are in town to play the Rockets.” Beutel then recommended the Golden State Warriors point guard visit the physical evidence of the landings. “We have hundreds of pounds of Moon rocks stored there, and the Apollo mission control. During his visit, he can see first-hand what we did 50 years ago, as well as what we’re doing now to go back to the Moon in the coming years, but this time to stay,” the statement concluded.
I have something odd to admit – I’ve never dismissed the Moon Landing Truthers out of hand. I think some skepticism is fine, and being skeptical of the moon landing is different than, like, being a Flat-Earther. My late father was a brilliant nuclear engineer and metallurgist with a far-ranging scientific mind, and even he had a lot of skepticism about the moon landing. He didn’t pretend to know for a fact that the moon landing was faked, he was just suspicious of the official story. My point? I think it’s sort of interesting that three NBA players were sitting around talking about this on a podcast, and that NASA got involved. Speaking of…
A day after his podcast comments went viral, Curry tried to play it off like it was all a joke. He told ESPN: “Obviously I was joking when I was talking on the podcast.” When asked why he didn’t correct the record earlier, he said “I was silently protesting how stupid it was that people actually took that quote and made it law.” And honestly, it sounds like Big Science got to him and threatened him. Curry’s message to kids: “For kids out there that hang on every word that we say, which is important, understand that you should not believe something just because somebody says it. You should do your homework and understand what you actually believe. But I’m going to go to NASA and I’m going to enjoy the experience whole-heartedly.”
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red.
What an idiot. Young kids look up to him and DO believe everything their idols say. Saying shit like this benefits no one, this is Kanye level foot in mouth disease.
THIS ^^
I find this whole topic is weird – maybe it’s because I’m not an American and I’m not obsessed with nationalistic pride, but who does this hurt exactly? How is this going to impact the kids that look up to Steph? Given everything America has done in its history, is it REALLY a stretch of the imagination to think the US would have staged it just to “beat” the USSR?
This is not even within the realm of endorsing and supporting a fascist Cheeto, so the Kayne comparison is a bit much.
Because it puts forward a dumb conspiracy in the face of actual science. It’s “I researched it on the internet” in place of facts. That’s why it’s bad.
It hurts SCIENCE and it hurts REALITY. We already have a man in the WH who ignores both in favor of conspiracy theories and lies so yeah, this isn’t really great.
Saying that the moon landing was staged (*eyeroll*) isn’t any different than being a 9/11 truther. It’s an insult to people who were a part of (or suffered from) these historical events.
And it blows my mind that you can see what’s happening in the USA with #QAnon, false flags and the like and question how this hurts anyone. Lies are destructive, PERIOD.
I absolutely LOVE Curry too so this is disappointing.
When you dismiss the moon landing, you dismiss the hundreds of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, steel workers who busted their ass to make it happen. And also it was televised live. Did these people not watch Hidden Figures?
@sarste, “Given everything America has done in it’s history, is it REALLY a stretch of the imagination to think the US would have staged it just to “beat” the USSR?”
Hmm, bit of a selective viewpoint here. Since you asked, given the history of the Soviet Union (technically different from today’s Russia, but not looking all that different at present) – it’s actually MORE likely that the USSR staged their part of the space race in the first place.
If that’s really where you want to go. I mean, a dog in space? Who believes that? Bet they were laughing at us all the way/sarcasm.
Seriously though, several great answers above to the larger question about why truth matters.
@Meee
EXACTLY!!!!
Some many young Black kids in America get ostracized for being interested in school–math and science in particular. The only “cool” people they can name are athletes, singers, models, and rappers (who, if women, are scantily clad most of the time), and the Obamas. We don’t need spots stars perpetuating this nonsense. Ignorant speech is not funny or cool or inevitable.
Ignorance and lies—who does it hurt???! (bangs head against wall)
It is the same path as believing Cheeto and conspiracies. It perpetuates that science isn’t correct and that you can’t believe it. It is the same as being an anti-vaxxer. People who dismiss science and facts do hurt others. Please look up measles and how quickly it is spreading again because people don’t want to believe science.
I think his apology was fine?
What really appalls me is that was the perfect time to bring up “Hidden Figures” (which as of August 2017 was *never* mentioned at Space Center Houston, home of extensive exhibits on the Apollo program) and how black women helped solve the complex math that led to countless successful space missions. Including the missions to the moon. Major fail.
Excellent point.
Yeah it’s an interesting side effect isn’t it? Hey kids, remember those African American women you were taught about whose brilliance helped humanity do something extraordinary and who are just now being acknowledged? Fakes! Liars! 🙄
Steph Curry is trash.
And I do dismiss moon landing truthers out of hand. Anti-science attitudes from uninformed doofuses are going to get us all killed. He went to college? That’s nice. I went to law school -that didn’t make me a heart surgeon. I know my lane. But hey if I need help bouncing a ball, I’ll call Mr. Curry.
In my and my friends’ experiences college athletes don’t go to school the way the rest of us plebes do. As graduate students we were all teaching assistants at various universities and athletes frequently did not attend class and if you were a great athlete (or in a school or sport that considered athletics important to their bottom line) then it was expected your TAs and professors would give you a passing grade even if they never saw you during the semester.
There’s a possibility that Steph might be an exception to that. Davidson wasn’t exactly a big time athletics school, and Steph was NOT a highly recruited athlete. I don’t know about his academic history, but I’m just pointing out that this wasn’t a b-ball player at Kentucky who just stops going to class once the season ends. His astronomical success on the court was a pretty big surprise.
Yep, everything @Paleokifaru said. My husband went to school with someone that’s a quarterback in the NFL (who won a super bowl) and while they had classes together, he never ever saw him attend. But the dude did graduate so there you go.
I went to a Big 10 university, and sat near a football player in a literature class. Well, I sat by him the once or twice he showed up.
There are a lot of other student athletes, and pro athletes, who were also excellent students and achieved high academic accomplishments too though, so we shouldn’t generalize.
FFS. There is no “Big Science” mafia that goes around threatening truthers.
We make fun of them publicly, on Twitter.
LOL! Exactly.
granddaughter of a NASA astrophysicist/engineer that helped make the moon landing happen.
newsflash: it happened and was an amazing feat of science and ingenuity and guts and competence and on and on.
really no time for anyone who has trouble with fact-based reality and scientific discovery.
the end.
My thoughts exactly.
Yeah, I’m with you on that. My sister works for NASA in Houston and while visiting, we were given an amazing completely behind the scenes tour of the entire facility with the head of security (who is also the son-in-law of the late Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Challenger explosion). Hearing him speak about the things they’ve accomplished and the way people out there doubt it being true (there are actually people who believe the members of the Challenger didn’t actually die too) was a very big eye opener. I’m all for questioning things in life, but to the people who worked and still work so hard there, it feels almost disrespectful to imply it was all a fraud.
My husband’s grandpa worked on the Apollo missions too. He was an orbital engineer who was instrumental in getting us to the moon. Frustrating to see his life’s work dismissed!
Daughter of a Grumman engineer. Grumman was the primary contractor for construction of the lunar modules used in the Apollo program. Dad worked in the space division starting in the 1960’s though not on a moon landing related project.
However, on a family tour of Grumman I saw a full size mock up of the LEM (original name – E for excursion was later dropped). This would have been a few years before the 1969 moon landing. As a kid, the gold colored foil insulation and skinny legs on the LEM made a big impression. What I saw was probably an earlier iteration and not the final version of the LM used by NASA.
There’s a throwaway line in the Apollo 13 movie said by Fred Haise (Bill Paxton, sigh) – “we have to be at Bethpage in the morning”. That would be the Grumman facility, where dad worked. Fred Haise was the LM pilot on that mission.
Of course, after his NASA career, Fred Haise came to work for Grumman, so perhaps the conspiracy theorists can make something of that/sarcasm.
Sheesh.
@windyriver-That is so freakin cool and my childhood self wants to ask you all kinds of questions. I was OBSESSED with Apollo 13 when it came out, OBSESSED and in turn space itself. I have the movie, book, posters, soundtrack, I got and built a model Saturn 5 and LM, did I mention obsessed. I remember that line because I think I can still quote every line of the movie. I also remember when they are in the meeting trying to figure out how to get them back and talk about moving them to the LEM and the one guy says, let’s ask the Grumman guys on this. All of it still fascinates me. Did you dad know that Grumman guy from the movie or was he just a man that embodies a bunch of Grumman employees? “Guess you can keep your job” “You betcha!” Ha!
god, same here. There are some enormous frauds and anti-science lies perpetrated out there, and too often by highly profitable industries like Big Tobacco, Exxon, etc., which have suppressed scientific truth in the name of the almighty dollar. But disbelieving the moon landing? That’s absurd and just incredible to me. It’s just another strain of virulent anti-science thinking and utter disregard for evidence and proof.
I vehemently disagree with Kaiser’s assessment here that “being skeptical of the moon landing is different than, like, being a Flat-Earther.” How? There’s abundant evidence of both the lunar landing and our planet’s sphericality. I’m a big believer in questioning everything, but dismissing solid evidence doesn’t make that evidence go away or matter less. Nor does it provide any accurate answers to the questions being asked.
That we are lied to regularly by governments and the massive corporations that run them is connected to why people believe conspiracy theories, I think. When we’re so powerless, so manipulated, people start to doubt even verifiable facts that come from governments. Conspiracy theories are a symptom of larger problems.
Of course it happened!
People who didn’t grow up or weren’t born during the Cold War era don’t understand that the space race was a very big deal.
If the USA didn’t reach the moon and lied about it, the Russians would have been all over that and made sure the world knew it was faked.
Count how many men lost their lives to achieve space travel… okay, now say it’s all a hoax and no American has ever, ever put a foot on the moon on any one of numerous trips.
Do people just like headlines and know playing dumb will get them? He’s a talented athlete. Millionaire. Does he need to play an idiot for press?
I fear for my daughters generation with all these “icons”: moon-truthers, birthers, purple-potato eating, only 10 squats a day for this butt shaping, wall building, antivaxxing, fake news screamers.
Between him doubting the moon landing…and Kyrie Irving wondering if the earth is flat…I’m convinced that WAY too many folks in professional sports are ignorant AF…
IMAGINE THAT!
It makes me wonder if there’s something in the water at their respective stadiums. This is some serious high level ignorance from him.
Jesus-he seems like a nice guy and all, but I can’t with this stupidity. I can’t believe that in 2018 people still consider this a valid viewpoint.
People need to quit validating this kind of stuff. It shouldn’t be a badge of honor to believe something so stupid.
Just because you can put words together better than our faux leader doesn’t mean you’re smarter. My God. I shouldn’t have read that lol.
(“You’re”)
I caught it right after I posted lol. Hate mistakes! I miss keyboards sometimes.
And cancelled. We need dumb people not to talk. Denying the enormity of the space program is like saying vaccines don’t work.
Uh, Kaiser – with all due respect to your late father, the Moon Landing deniers ARE as bad as the flat earthers and the fact that your brilliant father was potentially one of them doesn’t make those conspiracy theories any less crazy.
You provide a good illustration of why these things take root. “But so and so thinks this, so it can’t be all bad…” I have loved ones who think some crazy stuff. I still love them, but I can’t let my love for them cloud my judgement to think this nutty stuff is true.
THIS, amen.
Denial-ism in any form is dangerous. see also: climate change deniers and anti-vaccine ppl. etc.
Also, just because someone is well educated doesn’t mean they’re immune from irrational illogical conspiratorial thinking. Just look at the anti-vaxxer movement. Alot of the people behind it are relatively well educated.
My guesses for why so many people, even educated people, are prone to conspiratorial thinking:
1) On average people under estimate how much randomness exists in the world. (Yes, some things really are coincidence! lol)
2) I suspect that on average people under estimate how much behavior is due to poor information (and/or stupidity) and over-estimate how much is due to poor motives.
3) I also strongly suspect (on average) people under estimate the coordination requirements for a successful conspiracy: That is, they’re only as strong as the weakest link. Just think about how many people must be involved in this particular conspiracy to pull it off Good luck keeping all of that under wraps, particularly in the social media age.
Bottom line: ITA with you. People who think the moon landing was faked are just as wrong as flat earthers. It should be dismissed out of hand.
There has been a lot of research on personality types and why people believe in conspiracy theories. It has more to do with trying to control and have security. Conspiracy theorists tend to think they are special and have access to special information, so it boosts their self-image. This also makes them defend their views and further invest in the theories. Many intelligent people believe in conspiracy theories, it has less to do with intelligence and more personality.
NASA has been quite busy lately what with making machines take selfies on Mars, letting Nagini play cosmonaut, educating Steph Curry, and rescuing Iron Man.
I’m afraid that moon landing truthers are the 21st century’s flat earthers.
I’m afraid flat earthers are the 21st century’s flat earthers. (see Kyrie Irving)
What amazed me at the Space Center (I visited last fall) was how old everything looked. Of course all the equipment WAS old but the fact that they reached the moon with it was incredible when you think about it.
Even more amazing when you think about what computers were like at the time.
Anybody remember slide rules? There’s a scene in the Apollo 13 movie where someone uses one to check Tom Hanks’ calculations. That incident may or may not have really happened, but it certainly could have.
This whole “understand that you should not believe something just because somebody says it.” attitude is a slightly dangerous one. Too many people think that they can just question everything for no reason. I teach critical thinking and amazes me how many students are under the impression that valuing both sides and respecting opinions means so much more than truth. It’s healthy to be skeptical yes but you also have to realize that you have to have a good reason to question stuff . And that you can’t just question something because you want to question it . Like it’s cool to question if we actually made it to the moon but it’s not cool to ignore that all of the facts say we did, and that those in denial are looking at things which are not genuine evidence.
Questioning is one thing but when you question you need to know the difference between fact and opinion and you need to know what is solid evidence. Far too many people don’t and just question for questioning sake. It’s not valid just because it’s your opinion folks. Your opinion only has validity if it is backed up by evidence and facts and logical reasoning.
Saying that we shouldn’t believe everything we hear can open the door to ad hominem fallacies where folks just simply choose to disbelieve what is said by people they don’t like or simply don’t want to believe because what is being said doesn’t suit their narrative.
You’re wrong because I feel that you’re wrong.
“He’s educated too – he got through three years at Davidson College before leaving after his junior year to go pro.”
Umm, I’m not so sure about that. Star athletes get everything handed to them in college. Tutors, special make-up tests etc. Also the fact that many of them would never gain admission to these universities based on merit alone. So just because he completed 3 years doesn’t mean he actually learned anything.
hmmm this seems common with professional Athletes.
This really isn’t related, other than to be about an interest in Space: I went to Adult Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama this year & it was awesome! I totally recommend it if you are into space or have kids in your life that like space (they have Family Space Camp too). ☺
Has anyone actually listened to the interview? That would probably help illuminate whether or not Steph is actually being sarcastic or not. This is actually a pretty out of character thing for him to say.
I’m not going to cancel him for this. Was it a dumb thing to say (and not immediately correct)? Yes of course. But as far as professional athletes go he is one of the good guys. My son is a basketball player so I kind of follow the players closer than any other sport. He is a very vocal supporter of gun control and does speak out about the importance of sports for girls. After a young girl wrote to him asking why there were no “Steph Curry” sneakers for girls, he responded to her directly saying he was going to work with Nike to change that.
I don’t know, maybe because my son is a older (14) and when I mentioned Curry had said this, he just rolled his eyes and laughed, it doesn’t bother me too much.
I was very disappointed in Steph when I read that, and hoped it was a joke taken out of context. And I hate his comments, he’s coming across as condescending, and that’s really not him. Maybe he’s embarrassed at his ignorance. At least he’s getting the NASA treatment and educated by the best people to do it.
I listened! I’m a huge Warriors fan so I’m definitely biased, but he was totally joking with his friends/colleagues. Do I wish he didn’t say it – totally. Was it a missed opportunity to highlight women’s and POC’s contributions to science – sure. But I’m not a fan of “cancelling” people outright for a dumb comment that they try to correct and learn from. He has a pretty solid track record otherwise. People can make mistakes, people can grow from them. Just my two cents.
The astronauts left a mirror panel on the moon. It’s still used, I think?
Yes – if Mr. Curry had watched the “Moon Landing Hoax” episode of Mythbusters, he’d know that, as well as how they debunked all the other conspiracy theories about it. 🙂
OMG!! Not him too.
The moon landing was broadcast on LIVE television. We literally did not have the technology to fake something like that on the fly.
Also, there are things that are left on the moon that can be viewed with a telescope that is powerful enough…???? So how did that stuff get there then??
WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING DUMBER?
WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING DUMBER?
LOL I don’t know but it’s terrifying.
I always wondered how after the amazing wonders of ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt we fell into the “Dark Ages” for hundreds of years. I totally get it now.
Sorry but I am ride or die Steph Curry. Nobody come for my man!!!!
They came out with some conspiracy show when I was in high school (I think around 2001?) that got into the moon landing thing. My geometry teacher thought it was compelling enough to talk to us about it. I told a friend of mine what he said and she thought I was lying. She got real indignant about it too, which was out of character for her. I’m surprised to think about it in this context but it’s clearly still a hot button topic. I get riled up about plenty of things so I’m being kind of hypocritical, but the outrage around this theory makes me laugh. Carry on truthers, I need the giggles.
Anti vaxxer territory Steph! But her jumpsuit is EVERYTHING!!!!
It’s the really stupid ones who disbelieve something that has been proven over and over again, couching it in terms like “skepticism,” when really they think being contrarian or outrageous is the same as being insightful and smart.
Would love to know how all the missions get through the Van Allen belts. The Orion mission engineers at NASA are troubleshooting that very same issue today. So how did Nasa get the 1960s missions through yet, today, NASA can’t get the Orion Missions through?