An incident during Wednesday night’s matchup between the Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz gave new meaning to the term ‘hot mic.’
Shortly before the game was scheduled to tip off in Salt Lake City, a microphone literally caught fire on the court. Luckily for us, Raptors’ TV network Sportsnet shared video of the hot mic during the broadcast delay.
A microphone catches fire during the Raptors vs. Jazz game in Utah. 👀 pic.twitter.com/MHJgF95oLU
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 2, 2023
“There is a slight delay at the start of the game,” Raptors play-by-play voice Matt Devlin noted. “Underneath the basket by the stanchion right by the Toronto Raptors bench, you see a microphone catching fire there. And so they doused that.”
The flames were put out before the game started, but the crew still had to wipe down the court to clean up whatever was used to extinguish the fire. Kudos to Utah’s mascot Jazz Bear for getting in there and helping to clean up the mess so the game could begin.
There have been some bizarre hot mic incidents during sports broadcasts in the past. Just last week a Colorado Avalanche broadcaster went on an epic rant about seagulls without realizing his mic was still on. There have been f-bombs and s-bombs, and there have even been egregious hot mic incidents that led to announcers being fired, but a hot mic literally catching fire is a new one.
