Nuts!

I'll be the first to tell you, I love baseball and football, but I know nothing about basketball. This probably stems from growing up tall and being told all day that I "must love basketball." It's just not my cup of tea, but plenty of people do love it, and good for them.

My only connection to the hoops is seeing stories about the players, such as Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets.

Kyrie came to my attention a couple of years for claiming out loud that the earth is flat, and although he later apologized for his lunacy, he did say that at the time he said it, he was deeply involved in conspiracy theories.  And this was two years ago this month, when he still played for the Boston Celtics.  

Another NBA player, Steph Curry, joined Irving in saying that the earth is flat, but since he and his wife are well-known social media darlings, someone probably took his shoulder and advised him to put the kibosh on it.

And as I say, Irving apologized, although it sounded more like he was apologizing for saying it than for believing it.

There was a basketball player named Lloyd Bernard Free who started calling himself "World B. Free" in the 1980s as a symbol of his alliance with struggling people everywhere. People are suggesting that Irving should adopt the sobriquet "World B. Flat," but who knows.

The other news in the Wide World Of Irving is that he and his team were each fined $25,000 by the NBA because he is refusing to talk to the press, as all players are contractually obliged to do.

"The fines result from Irving's refusal on several occasions this week to participate in the team media availability," the NBA said in a statement Thursday. The rule is, all healthy players have to be available to reporters. With the corona protocols in place, players have been made available a few at a time so that reporters can ask them if they plan to play well and what they wish to accomplish this season....you know, the standard give-and-take between reporter and athlete.

Irving has been turning down questions since training camp opened on December 1, but he did issue a statement via Instagram on Friday:

"I pray we utilize the 'fine money' for the marginalized communities in need, especially seeing where our world is presently. I am here for Peace, Love, and Greatness. So stop distracting me and my team, and appreciate the Art. We move different over here. I do not talk to Pawns. My attention is worth more."

Kyrie is 28 now, and for those who like to compare the pay of athletes to schoolteachers and police and secretaries and all, I will tell you now, he's working on a 4-year, $141 million deal, so that means that a hit of $25G is less than 1% of his pay.

On the other hand, the league regards fines of that much as really penny ante stuff, because it's in the player contract that they can't file a grievance over a fine of less than $50,000, which is the chump change threshold on the hardwood.

I can tell you this because the whole story ties together. I think anyone who incurs a fine of 25 thousand because he won't say a word to the press is nuttier than the proverbial fruitcake, and I stood in the supermarket Friday deciding whether 12 dollars was too much to spend on a fruitcake. In a word, I said it was.