PITTSBURGH — A now-viral moment when a Uber Eats driver wandered onto the court during a college basketball game may have been part of a prank.
Video captured the supposed delivery person wandering onto the court Wednesday night in the middle of the Duquesne-Loyola Chicago game, briefly stopping play and amusing the announcers.
"Somebody came on the floor on the far side," one of the announcers remarked as the bizarre scene was unfolding. "For an Uber Eats delivery or something? I think he's carrying some McDonald's. I'm actually not kidding. I think that's what's happening."
"Was he going to deliver McDonald's to someone on the court?" the other commentator asked. "Can we rule that out?"
The interruption came when the individual wearing a bright yellow jacket, walked onto the court with a McDonald's bag in one hand and a soda cup in the other early in the second half of the game.
"Maybe I'll put my hand up, I'm getting a little hungry," quipped one of the announcers.
But the viral moment, laughed up by commentators at the game and on the internet, may have been designed that way.
Video from courtside observers shows what appears to be a lav mic attached to the "delivery person's" shirt. Lav mics are commonly used to record audio without drawing attention to the equipment.
Austin Hansen, the assistant athletics director for Loyola, tweeted that he believes this was a prank for YouTube or TikTok because lots of students were also filming the moment with their phones.
Hansen added he would "personally tackle" anybody who tried to replicate this in the future.
"Just let the athletes play the game without worry that they are going to get hurt by a stray delivery person," he wrote.
While video showing the whole encounter from an insider's perspective hasn't surfaced yet, content creators on TikTok and Youtube often create bizarre situations to attract viewers.
The on-court spectacle would definitely fit that narrative.
The man wandered onto the court just as play was beginning to turn to the other basket, but seconds later referees called a time-out to figure out what was going on.
The person nearly bumped into a player when he walked onto the court. While he was eventually escorted off by a referee, the moment went viral on social media.
Abby Schnable, who covers basketball for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, tweeted that the video board later showed a student in the stands with the food cheering.
"Oh, he got it, he got the delivery!" one of the announcers exclaimed as the camera tracked the apparent delivery handoff. "This guy thinks he's going to get a tip."
