Kyrie Irving has given $500,000 to GoFundMe pages

© Provided by Axios Dallas

The families of UNT graduate students from India who were involved in a fatal crash started a GoFundMe for help with staggering medical bills and funeral expenses.

• When they saw a $38,000 contribution, they googled the donor's name: Kyrie Irving.

The big picture: The enigmatic Mavs star has made headlines for his unapologetic exploration of conspiracy theories, but he's also quietly given more than $500,000 to different GoFundMe appeals over the last year.

• The gifts have covered everything from education funding to attorney fees for people fighting criminal charges to the startup costs for a medicinal herb farm, according to NetsDaily, a site covering Irving's former team, the Brooklyn Nets.

Between the lines: The quiet giving is also another way Irving has endeared himself to North Texas since a blockbuster trade brought him here in February.

• Earlier this month, Irving wore a 2022 South Oak Cliff state football championship hat, an homage to the first ever Dallas ISD school to win back-to-back state championships.

Flashback: In 2021, Irving bought a house for the family of George Floyd, the Minnesota man whose death set off national protests a year earlier.

Zoom in: Sharath Yedavelli and Vaani Yadlapati were coming home from classes on March 2 when the car they were in struck another vehicle, according to WFAA. Yedavelli suffered a broken leg and a disfigured jaw.

• Yadlapati, a 20-year-old prodigy pursuing a master's degree in data science, died a few days after the accident, according to the GoFundMe page set up by her family. Her body was taken back to India for burial.

The intrigue: The families told WFAA that they mostly watch cricket, not basketball, so they didn't recognize Irving's name.

What they're saying: "We're kinda in shock," Amarnadh Eedpuganti, one of Yadlapati's family friends, told WFAA.

• "I'm his newest fan."