The Federal Aviation Administration issued a “nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports” on Friday afternoon due to an unspecified communication issue that Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said would take some time to resolve, per Grace Raynor of The Athletic.
There were at least five NBA teams scheduled to fly on Friday for their games on Saturday: the Nets and Pistons were both on track for afternoon flights, while the Cavaliers, Bullsand Grizzlies were all scheduled to fly out after their games on Friday night, Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes within the same story.
The Knicks had also intended to fly out Friday night after their matchup with the Pacers, per Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link), who says their plans remain up in the air.
The Pistons were lucky enough to depart before the outage was reported and landed safely in Miami ahead of their Saturday matchup with the Heat, but the Nets, who had stayed in New Orleans after their win over the Pelicans on Wednesday, were grounded just minutes before they were set to take off for Memphis, where they’re scheduled to face the Grizzlies on Saturday.
The Nuggets already made it to their next destination, per Bennett Durando of the Denver Post (Twitter link), as did the Mavericksper The Dallas Morning News’ Mike Curtis. Others, such as the Knicks and Spurs, are waiting to see what will happen with their travel plans, Tom Orsborn writes for the San Antonio Express-News.
The teams are not the only parties impacted by this outage, as referee availability could be a problem — refs fly commercially for games and could still be impacted by delays even when the ground stop is lifted.
A league official declined to comment on the potential for game cancellations on Saturday until the NBA receives more information.
Source: www.hoopsrumors.com
