Heat-Bulls game at the United Center postponed due to condensation on the court

CHICAGO (AP) — The game between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls at the United Center on Thursday night was postponed after a nearly two-hour delay due to condensation on the court.

The officials cited "court conditions” for the delay in starting the contest. There appeared to be moisture on the floor at the United Center, which is also home to the Chicago Blackhawks, who played Wednesday and will skate at the arena again Friday. Workers tried to dry the surface using mops and towels.

The game was officially postponed at 8:53 p.m., prompting boos from the crowd. A rescheduled date for the game was not immediately announced, although the Bulls said tickets from Thursday would be honored.

The Bulls entered at 17-20 and on a three-game losing streak. The contest was supposed to be the second in a four-game trip for the Heat (20-17).

Referee Sean Wright told a pool reporter that players first informed him of the slippery court during warmups. Despite efforts by the United Center staff — including shuffling across the floor with thick towels on their feet — “we just couldn’t guarantee a safe on-court experience,” Wright said.

“At 9:13 on the warm-up clock, some Miami players came and said the court was real slippery and at the same time some Bulls players came over as well,” Wright said. “So, I checked the court conditions and then I immediately got on the horn and notified the (NBA) Replay Center what was going on.”

The decision to delay the start of the game wasn't announced on the United Center public address system until tipoff.

“We tried to work together to see if we could fix the problem," Wright said. ”We had ongoing talks and tried some different stuff on the court, and nothing seemed to work."

Both teams realized the conditions were too risky.

“We always want to try to go,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “The players were complaining about it on both sides. So pretty much indeed we felt that it wasn't playable.

“We have that in our practice facility and when there's condensation it takes about 15 minutes for it to change. So we weren't too optimistic it was going to change.”

Spoelstra added players could feel the slipperiness in pregame warmups.

“By the time I got out there, all the players were complaining,” he said.

Bulls guard Tre Jones told reporters that players kept awaiting a final word.

“They were just telling us, that pretty much, they were gonna' keep waiting,” Jones said. “It was like 15-minute segments and every 15 minutes would go by and they're just like trying to continue to work on it to make sure we had a safe playing field, but just couldn't get it figured out.”

Jones, who was in the starting lineup on his 26th birthday, said he could feel the slipperiness.

“I think as more people got in the gym and everything it just got warmer," he said. "So I think it continued to get a little bit worse, a little more slippery.”

About 40 minutes after the expected 7:05 p.m. tipoff time, an announcement was made that the expected start time would be after 8 p.m. local time.

Maintenance personnel pushed large mops across court while players from both teams milled about dribbling, shooting and chatting at the start of the delay. At about 7:50 p.m. players and coaches returned to their dressing rooms and the floor was cleared to allow workers to attempt to dry the the surface using mops and towels.

Game officials, then Heat players and coaches, started returning to the floor at 8:25 p.m. Bulls coaches and a handful of Chicago players led by Coby White followed minutes later and filtered about. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and Miami's Spoelstra were among those chatting.

The teams then exited the court at 8:45 p.m. without attempting to warm up.

Temperatures in Chicago reached the mid-50s on a rainy Thursday.

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United Center employees try to dry the court before an NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

United Center employees try to dry the court before an NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

United center employees cleans the court during a delay before an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

United center employees clean the court during a delay before an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

United center employees clean the court during a delay before an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in Chicago, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)