The Golden State Warriors' matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night was delayed for nearly 30 minutes due to a bizarre net malfunction that appeared to be caused by some pregame antics from Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga.
Prior to the game, Kuminga was hanging on the rim and started to mess with his teammates by knocking away their shots. On one of them, he put his hand through the rim and got tangled up with the net. A video from the Timberwolves broadcast shows a piece of the net apparently becoming dislodged in the process.
Just before the game was set to begin, the Warriors and the referees noticed the issue with the net and called the operations staff over to assess the situation. A ladder was soon brought out to the court and multiple workers got to work on fixing the net.
The crowd became increasingly frustrated as repeated attempts to remedy the situation were unsuccessful. Even Steph Curry was getting fed up. He joined in on the boos and gave a double thumbs down on one of the failed efforts.
While everyone was waiting, some players took time to catch up with old friends, while others got shots up on the other end of the court, which was not affected. Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards said hello to Warriors coach Steve Kerr, for whom he played this summer in the Olympics with Team USA. Former teammates Kyle Anderson and Rudy Gobert also chatted -- though perhaps not about the notorious moment when Gobert punched Anderson on the bench during the 2023 season.
Finally, the net was fixed and the referees gave the all clear to start the game. But due to all the time they had spent sitting around, the two teams were given time to re-warm-up, which only added to the delay. All told, it was nearly half an hour after the originally scheduled tip time when the game actually began.