Stranded Detroit Pistons' game is postponed after team waited seven hours at airport amid Texas winter storms only to be forced back to hotel

• The Detroit Pistons played the Dallas Mavericks Monday night, and were unable to leave Dallas due to icy conditions.
• NBA games have rarely been postponed due to weather in recent years compared to the number of games missed due to COVID outbreaks.

A Wednesday game between the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons was postponed after the Pistons were stranded at the Dallas airport for seven hours and couldn't make it home in time.

Icy weather and low temperatures have caused thousands of flights to be canceled this week across Texas as airlines struggle with the latest winter storm to rock Texas. The Pistons had been in Dallas since early in the week for a game against the Mavericks Monday night, and originally planned to fly back to Detroit early Wednesday and to play the Wizards that night.

James Edwards, who covers the Pistons for The Athletic, reported that the NBA initially planned to delay the tipoff if the Pistons could take off later in the morning or early afternoon. However, the team — still stuck — was forced to return to their hotel after seven hours at the airport. The game was later postponed, according to ESPN.

A second game came close to being affected by the storm, as the New Orleans Pelicans managed to arrive in Dallas in the early afternoon, only hours before their Thursday night game against the Mavericks, according to ESPN's Andrew Lopez. The Pelicans stayed in Denver an extra day after playing the Nuggets Tuesday, hoping weather conditions would improve enough to allow them to fly into Dallas.

CJ McCollum, a veteran shooting guard starter for the Pelicans who is also president of the NBA Players Association, tweeted that the Pelicans still were expected to travel and play a game several hours later despite the harrowing trip:

Another Pelican, Larry Nance Jr., responded to McCollum's tweet saying that buses weren't at the airport when they arrived, stranding the team with about six hours until tipoff.

Minutes later, team radio announcer Tom Graffagnini responded to a tweet from Lopez and said the buses had arrived.

Over the course of the pandemic, NBA games routinely were postponed or canceled due to COVID outbreaks among players. Historically, the NBA has postponed or canceled games in the wake of substantial news events like the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and then-President John F. Kennedy, or during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

Winter storms can force the league to postpone games as a last resort when the safety of fans or teams is a concern. Notably, the deadly winter storm that caused billions of dollars in damage and killed dozens of Texans in February 2021, caused the postponement of multiple NBA games, as well as several college basketball and NHL games.

The NBA has not yet announced the new date for Pistons-Wizards.