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College Basketball Game Delayed for a Truly Absurd Reason

Also in Traina Thoughts: George Kittle says hello at bad time; Charles Barkley rates outfits; NBA betting nugget and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. Fairleigh Dickinson was set to take on Long Island University at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Shortly after 7, Fairleigh Dickinson’s Twitter account sent this update:

The reason for the 20-minute delay?

Most of Fairleigh Dickinson's players were stuck in an elevator. FDU's locker room was three floors from the court, so 13 of the 15 players decided to skip the stairs and take the elevator. 

The same elevator.

All at once.

“Apparently the lights went out, it was extremely hot in there, they were shoulder to shoulder the whole time,” FDU coach Jack Castleberry said after the game.

“There were a few claustrophobic guys who were rather uncomfortable.” 

As someone with major claustrophobic issues, just reading that quote made me break out into a sweat.

Meanwhile, the players had to be rescued by firefighters. 

Again, for those of us who are claustrophobic—and as someone who can’t even get on an elevator with more than two or three other people, tops—simply watching that video is extremely uncomfortable. There does not seem to be much space in that elevator at all, and then throw in the fact that these are large basketball players. Brutal!

The night ended on a positive, though, with FDU pulling out an 84–82 overtime win. The FDU Twitter account also was able to have some fun with the unusual situation after the players finally got out of the elevator.

2. There has been some great mic’d up moments to come out of Super Bowl LVIII this week. Now we have footage of Niners tight end George Kittle trying to greet Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis while a fumble was on the ground.

3. Charles Barkley rating outfits of NBA stars is as amusing as you'd expect.

4. Here’s some important information for NBA bettors preparing for the second half of the season.

5. AppleTV+’s 10-part documentary The Dynasty: New England Patriots is under way, with the first two episodes now streaming. Two new episodes will drop every Friday for the next five weeks. It appears that Episode 1 kicks off with the Drew Bledsoe injury that ended up starting Tom Brady’s legendary career.

6. This week's episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina is an all–Traina Thoughts, post–Super Bowl edition with Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY.

Topics discussed include Tony Romo’s performance calling the Big Game, the massive confusion about the overtime rules, the halftime show, whether the game should start earlier in the day, the awful injury suffered by the San Francisco 49ers’ Dre Greenlaw and whether Kyle Shanahan made the right move by taking the ball in overtime.

Other topics include CBS’s outstanding special You Are Looking Live!, on the history of the NFL Today pregame show; whether betting on a game changes the way you watch sports; the latest episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm; the post–NFL season blues; the best type of pretzel and much more

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 65th birthday to tennis great John McEnroe.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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