Friday’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers endured a lengthy first quarter delay for an incredibly strange reason.
About midway through the first quarter, Luka Doncic knocked down a three-pointer and immediately realized something was wrong with the rim. Doncic correctly pointed out that the rim was not completely level, and signaled to get the officials’ attention.
The game was ultimately stopped with 6:03 to go in the first as the officials looked into the issue. Boban Marjanovic was summoned from the Dallas bench to confirm Doncic’s suspicions.
Luka knew something was wrong with the rim after this shot 😅 pic.twitter.com/w9BmAnYIGE
— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 5, 2022
The ensuing investigation actually required a level to be brought out. ESPN’s broadcast reported that fixing the crooked rim led to the backboard becoming crooked, so the arena crew in Dallas had to replace the entire basket stanchion in order to continue.
Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks on making the Final Four pic.twitter.com/SVW7jbAvuR
— OddsShopper (@OddsShopper) February 5, 2022
Fixed the rim… made the backboard crooked. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/dHd7bUSK12
— Amy Fadool Kane (@amyfadoolNBCS) February 5, 2022
The entire bizarre scene led to a delay of over a half hour.
Typically, when you see something like this happen, it’s because someone threw down a monster dunk and broke the backboard. There is recent precedent for a player believing the rim was off, but the difference here is that Doncic was correct in his assessment. His attention to detail led to a pretty amusing and bizarre scene in Dallas.
