Nuggets React To Earthquake That Canceled First Summer League Game
LAS VEGAS (CBS4) - The Denver Nuggets' first game in the NBA Summer League was canceled Friday night due to earthquake that shook the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. The game will not be rescheduled.
"I was in the locker room. We were getting ready for the game talking to the players in the pregame speech," said Summer League head coach Jordi Fernandez on Saturday, one day after the earthquake. "At one point they (the players) were holding the walls and looking at me. And then I felt it and we all realized what it was, and it was kind of scary. It was weird."
"All of a sudden I look down and I thought I was just dizzy," said Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr.
"The floor just started moving. I'm swaying from side to side like going up and down I'm like, 'what's going on?' And then everybody started looking around so I knew it wasn't just me."
Forward Vlatko Cancar said he too experienced a dizzy feeling.
"I closed my eyes for a second, I like grabbed the wall, so then everybody was like, 'did you feel that? Wait, is it an earthquake?'" said Cancar.
The NBA decided to stop the two games that were in progress and cancel the Nuggets game against the Suns which was the only game that had yet to start.
"I thought in the end it was the right thing to do to cancel everything, obviously make sure that the building was safe enough for the next games," said Fernandez.
The Summer League format is for each team to get four preliminary games prior to the tournament portion of Summer League beginning on Wednesday July 11, however, with the cancellation the Nuggets and Suns will only play three preliminary games.
"That's the bad part," said Fernandez. "I thought the guys deserved to play all four of those (preliminary games) and then the playoff game, but we're going to make the best of it."
The Nuggets will begin Summer League play on Sunday afternoon against the Orlando Magic.
