Miami League Raises Concerns About Elevated Court at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

The Miami Heat have announced that second-year guard Dru Smith is out for the season due to a serious knee sprain sustained in Cleveland.

The Heat organization called the league office to inquire about how Smith injured his leg.

Smith lept to contest a Max Strus corner 3


and landed near the Cavaliers’ bench, where there is about a 10-inch drop-off from the court to the floor, resulting in his leg twisting under him.

The Heat didn’t file a formal complaint but contacted the NBA about the drop, as reported by Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.

Reporters covering the Cavaliers noted that the 10-inch drop has been present throughout the team’s 30 years in the building. LeBron James told Joe Varden of the Athletic, “Yes, the league should look at it. They should address it.“

“It’s something that definitely needs to be looked at,” [Lakers head coach and former NBA player Darvin] Ham said. “Any time … you have a situation where someone’s getting hurt and the potential to get hurt, and in this particular case it’s the floor, I think they need to take a look at it and see if there are ways things could be better.”

After 30 years, addressing the issue may not be feasible in the short term. But sometimes, it takes a serious injury to highlight a safety concern, and that seems to finally be the case with the court in Cleveland.