The first game in Boston of this year’s NBA Finals is already proving to be an eventful one … even well before tip-off.
Golden State Warriors announcer Tim Roye revealed before Wednesday’s Game 3 at TD Garden that some Warriors complained about the height of the basket during pregame shootaround. It turns out that they were right — the basket was not set to the proper height of 10 feet.
NBC Sports Bay Area shared footage of the hoop being measured. The Warriors’ warmups were then paused while the basket was adjusted.
Were the Celtics trying to pull a fast one on the Warriors? Some theories suggested that it may have been an intentional ploy to throw off Golden State, getting them to warm up on an off-kilter hoop, only to suddenly correct the height of the basket in time for the game.
This incident also brings to mind the stories of opponents who played at Boston Garden during the playoffs in decades past. There is the famous one of Magic Johnson failing to get a shot off at the end of regulation in Game 2 of the 1984 Finals, supposedly because he couldn’t see the game clock as it was allegedly being covered by Celtics fans. Phil Jackson also once revealed some of Red Auerbach’s more infamous moments of gamesmanship, which included cranking up the heat in the visitor’s locker room to over 100 degrees and removing all their towels.
Even in more recent years, opponents have been open about how much they hate playing in Boston. Whether Wednesday’s incident was just an innocent mistake or yet another addition to the list of the Celtics’ competitive hijinks over the years, at least the Warriors managed to catch it.
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