During Wednesday night's Dallas Mavericks-Atlanta Hawks game, a leaky roof from snowy weather outside caused a brief delay.
It wasn't the first time this season an NBA game -- which, inside info here, usually takes place indoors -- was paused because of weather. And both are far from the strangest delay in league history.
Here's a glance at 10(ish) others:
1979: Chocolate Thunder Strikes
Shaquille O'Neal and Chip Douglas imitated and/or expanded upon his pioneer feat, but Darryl "Chocolate Thunder" Dawkins made breaking backboards famous. Of course his move, which first occurred in 1979, always forced the in-arena operations staff to, you know, put in a new basket.
1986: NBA's First Rainout
Of course it would happen in rainy Seattle; the league's first game ever called off due to weather came when the SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns faced off. The long-leaky roof of the place formerly known as the Coliseum would not cooperate, and in the second quarter -- with fans reportedly having opened umbrellas -- referees shut the game down after nearly an hour of waiting.
1994: More Than Fireworks
The San Antonio Spurs might be one of the most successful franchises in recent history, but they're also one of the most weirdly delayed (often through no fault of their own). This was not good, though: In the 1994-95 season opener, the pregame fireworks set off the Alamodome's sprinkler system -- sending a reported 12,000 gallons of water onto fans, coaches and players in a span of four minutes (watch the video here). But hey! The game started within the hour.
2008: Another Misfire
The NBA features some of the most creative in-break entertainment ... but that's not always a good thing. After the first quarter of Game 1 of the 2008 playoff series between the Spurs and the New Orleans Hornets, the home team's mascot, Hugo, did the old jump-through-the-ring-of-fire trick. Don't worry -- Hugo was fine. But the extinguishing and cleanup processes went awry, leaving foam all over the court that caused 20 minutes to clean and led then commissioner David Stern to speak out against in-arena pyrotechnics.
2009: Preseason Filibuster
During the third quarter of their preseason game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, the New York Knicks experienced a delay they didn't quite expect: Maccabi coach Pini Gershon, after being ejected, refused to leave the game. This led to an eight-minute delay, and even an intervention from Rabbi Yitchak Dovid Grossman, who tried to mediate with officials. Eventually Gershon left. "He's quite a character," Maccabi's Yaniv Green said of his coach, "like you saw today."
2009 and 2011: Bat Man(u)
Perhaps the most (in)famous delay of all actually happened twice ... in the same building ... featuring the same teams. Yes, with the Sacramento Kings visiting, the Spurs twice were tormented by a bat. On the first occasion (on Halloween!) Manu Ginobili famously swatted it out of the air, leading to rabies shots for Ginobili as well as a reprimand from PETA. The second time, a season later, saw Manu hold back; the bat instead flew into a fan in the stands.
2012: The Fog Of Hoops
Oh, the Detroit Pistons had a spooky halftime show planned for their game against the Houston Rockets on Halloween 2012. The fog machine got overeager, though, inadvertently starting with about a minute left in the second quarter. We hadn't seen fog this disruptive since it hit Antonio Bay, California.
2013: Quicken Leaks
Apparently still shedding tears over LeBron James' departure to the Miami Heat -- and not able to see the future -- the Quicken Loans scoreboard dripped fluid before the (resting) King's return to Cleveland on April 15, 2013. The entire board had to be lowered to fix it. At least Cavs mascot Moondog had some fun with it.
Scoreboard is leaking fluid on to floor.We need to lower scoreboard to fix. Never seen this one before. Going to be several minutes to fix.
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) March 20, 20132013: Where There's Smoke ...
This one could have been no laughing matter. Luckily no one was reported injured/made ill when a generator malfunction outside the arena sent smoke inside, forcing an evacuation and the postponement of the regular-season game in Mexico City between the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs.
2014: Rim Rocked
The Washington Wizards-Houston Rockets game from earlier this season was halted for 30 minutes when the rim was discovered to be crooked just seconds into the game. Dwight Howard valiantly attempted to fix it himself, probably because the disruption was caused by his pregame free throw shooting (we kid, we kid). In the end, the thing had to be replaced.
More awesome stories
• LeBron James Jr. is back to show off his court vision
• James Stewart Jr. does NOT have the worst golf swing of all time
• High school player uses the old inbound-off-the-back trick ... and gets a dunk out of it!