NBA All-Star Luka Doncic noticed that the American Airlines Center rim was tilted to the right and screamed for the officials' attention.
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Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the NBA comes through. A lengthy delay occurred during Friday night’s nationally televised matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers due to a crooked rim and backboard. After making a 3-pointer with just over six minutes left in the first quarter, Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic noticed that the American Airlines Center rim was tilted to the right and screamed for the officials’ attention.
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In an effort to save the day, 7-foot-4 Mavericks center Boban Marjanovic walked out on the court, grabbed the rim and gave it a few hard shakes. Unfortunately, his hard work went for naught, as it was eventually deemed that the entire basket needed to be replaced.
Luka knew something was wrong with the rim after this shot ? pic.twitter.com/w9BmAnYIGE
— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 5, 2022
Every NBA arena is required to have a back-up basket readily available, and now you see why. The hard-working facilities crew got to work, and eventually got the new basket into position. Play ball, right? Wrong.
The replacement basket ended up being too high, so a further delay was necessary to bring the rim down to the regulation 10-foot height. The game was paused for so long that the social media accounts for the Mavericks and 76ers engaged in a full game of tic-tac-toe. Any way to pass the time.
The game finally resumed with the 76ers leading 19-17 after a delay that lasted over 40 minutes, including a brief warm-up period for both teams.
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