NBA Cancels Wolves-Spurs Game in Mexico City After Fire Starts Inside Arena

The NBA was planning to playing a game in Mexico City tonight between the Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs, but those plans went awry about an hour before tipoff when a fire inside of Mexico City Arena caused a total evacuation of the building and immediate delay of the game. Smoke began to fill the arena during pregame warmups began to fill the stadium and the arena was evacuated.

At the time of the evacuation, fans had not been allowed inside of the building and the only ones inside were players, coaches and team personnel.

It wasn’t just a small game for the NBA either as the league really wanted to play a game inside Mexico City Arena, which was built roughly over a year ago. It’s a state of the art facility and the game itself was being looked forward to as a way of expanding the NBA’s interests to a city that some believe could house a team.

The game wasn’t to be though as the NBA released a statement saying that a power generator malfunction was the cause of the smoke and possible fire and the players weren’t allowed back in the arena where the dangerous smoke was still filling the court an hour and a half after the building was evacuated. The Spurs weren’t about to wait around as their team bus left the area just before 11pm ET and the Timberwolves left shortly there after.

There is no makeup date for the game yet but we can all be thankful that everyone was able to avoid danger tonight in a bizarre situation no one saw coming.