Kids, just remember this is what can happen when you’re so good at one thing you think you can speak with authority on something you know absolutely zero about.

Shaquille O’Neal is, without question, one of the greatest basketball players of all time — but the man knows nothing about science, and it shows. Shaq was a guest on Australia’s The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Thursday, and the hosts asked him about the absolute dumbest thing he has ever said in public: that he believes the Earth is flat.

Back in 2017 rapper BoB shocked fans by declaring he was a firm believer in the archaic theory that the world was a round disk from which you could fall off the edge. Shockingly we quickly found out he wasn’t alone in his journey back to the Dark Ages as Shaq declared he also believed the nonsense on his Big Podcast, saying:

“It’s true. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. Yes, it is. Listen, there are three ways to manipulate the mind: what you read, what you see, and what you hear. In school, first thing they teach us is, ‘Columbus discovered America’, but when he got there, there were some fair-skinned people with the long hair smoking on the peace pipes. So, what does that tell you? Columbus didn’t discover America. So, listen, I drive from coast to coast, and this s**t is flat to me. I’m just saying. I drive from Florida to California all the time, and it’s flat to me. I do not go up and down at a 360-degree angle, and all that stuff about gravity, have you looked outside Atlanta lately and seen all these buildings? You mean to tell me that China is under us? China is under us? It’s not. The world is flat.”

Yeah. Wow. His scientific evidence is that he… drives from Florida to California a lot and doesn’t loop-de-loop on Interstate 10.

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You’d think in the five years since embarrassing himself so monumentally in public he would have seen the error of his ways, listened to people who actually know what they’re talking about, maybe even watched a handy video made by a meteorologist in response to the bizarre surge in celebs embracing a theory disproven so long ago and so thoroughly that it’s shocking it’s taken seriously by anyone.

But no. It turns out, as we learned this week, Shaq is standing firm on the still very flat ground. Kyle asked if it was actually all a joke, as the Steel star had insinuated in an interview shortly after the original story. But instead the former LA Laker responded:

“It’s a theory… It’s just a theory, they teach us a lot of things, it’s just a theory…”

Then he used, of all things, his flight from Los Angeles to Australia as a new illustration to replace his Florida-to-Cali one. He explained:

“I flew 20 hours today, not once did I go this way [gesturing around with his finger]. I flew straight… I didn’t tip over, I didn’t go upside down.”

OK, but… the fact he flew relatively “straight” (actually in a parabolic curve like all flights — if they went straight they wouldn’t leave the ground) should tell him that the Earth is indeed round. After all, he went all the way to Australia from LA. And he could then continue on the same direction from Australia and end up in New York. How could that possibly be true if the Earth was flat??

When Kyle tried explaining that to him, Shaq responded:

“But it’s still a straight line. You don’t go under.”

Sigh. Did we mention Shaq is one of the best basketball players of all time?? See the head-scratching interview moment (below):

[Image via Kyle & Jackie O/Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube.]

The post Shaq Just Reminded Everyone He's A Flat Earther! appeared first on Perez Hilton.