Donovan Mitchell had to respond to the wild theory that he saw circulating online this weekend.
The Cleveland Cavaliers hosted a game Wednesday against the Miami Heat. During the second quarter of the contest, Heat guard Dru Smith was trying to close out on a corner three-point attempt and stepped on what looked to be a piece of paper underneath the seat of a Cavs assistant coach. Smith slipped on the paper, and it looked like his foot then disappeared below.
The undrafted guard Smith ultimately suffered a third-degree sprain to his right ACL on the play, ending his season. That led to major scrutiny of the incident online. One theory even emerged claiming that the Cavs assistant had supposedly put the piece of paper there on purpose in order to cover a hole in the court.
That theory was resoundingly untrue though, and the Cavs star Mitchell reacted to one post on Instagram that spread the false information.
“Cmon yo there’s not a hole in the court,” he wrote with a facepalm emoji.
The actual explanation was that the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse court is raised. Smith slipped on the piece of paper, carrying his foot from the raised court down to a lower portion of flooring. You can see the video for yourself at the link here.
The incident was a very unfortunate one for Smith, a player on a minimum-salary deal trying to make a name for himself in the NBA. But as to whether his injury was the result of a sinister hidden hole on the Cavaliers’ court, the answer is an emphatic “no.”
