OAKLAND, Calif. -- Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry said he was joking when he questioned on a podcast whether astronauts ever landed on the moon, and he will happily accept NASA's invitation to tour the lunar lab at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"One thousand percent," Curry told ESPN on Wednesday of accepting the invite. "One thousand percent. Obviously I was joking when I was talking on the podcast. [Then] I was silently protesting how stupid it was that people actually took that quote and made it law as, 'Oh my God, he's a fake-moon-landing truther,' whatever you want to call it, yada, yada, yada. So I was silently protesting that part about it, how the story took a life of its own.
"But in terms of the reaction that I've gotten, I am definitely going to take [NASA] up on their offer. I am going to educate myself firsthand on everything that NASA has done and shine a light on their tremendous work over the years. And hopefully people understand that education is power, informing yourself is power. 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 wholeheartedly."
The genesis of Curry's comments come from an appearance on The Ringer's "Winging It" podcast. In the midst of lighthearted conversation between Curry, teammate Andre Iguodala, Atlanta Hawks players Vince Carter and Kent Bazemore and co-host Annie Finberg, the group went from talking about what sound a dinosaur made to the possibility that the moon landing didn't actually happen.
"We ever been to the moon?" Curry asked.
After several voices said, "No," Curry responded, "They're going to come get us, I don't think so either. Sorry, I don't want to start conspiracies."
The comments quickly went viral and even Curry admits being surprised just how big the story became.
"This one got me," Curry said Wednesday. "This one got me. Because of the setting that I was in when I was talking -- if you actually listen to the podcast, we were talking about all sorts of wild stuff. We went from Trae Young comparisons to 'What sound does a dinosaur make?' [From] 'What's your favorite brand of golf club?' to conspiracy theories. And literally out of an hour-and-10-minute podcast, that five-second comment of me asking, 'Did we land on the moon?' was the only thing people got out of that.
"... Again, part of why I just kind of let it sit out there is just because I was like, 'What is this?' There's way more serious stuff that's going on in our world that this doesn't necessarily deserve that much attention. But again, I got a NASA invite out of it and I am going to enjoy it."