A men’s college basketball game was halted on Wednesday night after an Uber Eats delivery person walked onto the court with a McDonald’s order in hand.
On 24 January, Loyola Chicago and Duquesne faced off at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Just minutes into the second half of the game, the Uber Eats delivery man wandered onto the right baseline of the court with a bag of food and a drink from McDonald’s.
A viral video showed the driver dressed in a yellow jacket with what appeared to be an Uber Eats logo on the bag. As the man joined the players on the court, an official timeout was called after the referee blew his whistle and waved at the delivery person to get off the court.
The game commentators were dumbfounded by the amusing moment, and claimed they had never seen a delivery person waltz onto the court before to drop off a food order.
“Somebody came on the floor, on the far side, looking for an Uber eats delivery or something,” one announcer said in the clip. “There he is carrying some McDonald’s.”
“I’m actually not kidding, I think that’s what’s happening,” he added.
The second commentator chimed in: “This guy’s in the corner, was he gonna deliver the McDonald’s to somebody on the court? Can we rule that out?”
Then, the game announcers watched the instant replay of the Uber Eats driver walking onto the court, and excitedly said, “There he is!”
While it’s unclear who the McDonald’s delivery belonged to, many witnesses at the basketball game have their theories. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Abby Schnable tweeted that someone working the video board had ordered the food.
Ohers believed the entire event was staged for a video. Austin Hansen – who is the assistant athletics director, content development and broadcast operations for the Loyola Ramblers – posted videos and images while sitting courtside at the game, and noted how the delivery person was actually wearing a small microphone.
“This kid was clearly doing a prank for Youtube/TikTok,” he tweeted. “You can see that he is wearing a microphone, and tons of students were filming him with their phones.”
He added: “They didn’t kick him out. He just casually walked back into the stands with his McDonalds in hand.”
Pittsburgh Sports Now reporter Zachary Weiss confirmed that the man was actually not an Uber Eats driver, and was just someone who “threw a jacket on, used a hidden camera and had a friend record from higher up.”
“The individual on the court was ejected from the premises,” he added.
Despite the delivery attempt possibly being a prank, that didn’t stop the official Twitter account for Uber Eats joining in on the fun. “Nothing but net,” the company replied to a viral video showing the man walking onto the court.
