It's fairly common for athletes to wake up early in the morning to start their daily routine. But what’s not common is receiving an alert that a nuclear missile might be heading your way.
That was the experience for the athletes competing in Okinawa, Japan at the FIBA Basketball World Cup yesterday, as players heard a nuclear siren ringing through the air in the early morning. Everyone in the area received a text alert stating that the government had detected a missile launch from North Korea and that citizens should be on alert.
"Due to the launch of a satellite by North Korea, the Japanese Government sent two alarms via the “J-Alert system” on all cell phones in Okinawa early this morning," FIBA said in a statement. "The first was sent at 3:54 am and the second at 4:07 am, clearing the alarm."
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Dallas Mavericks guard and Slovenian national team member Luka Doncic recounted the event, saying the whole experience was certainly frightening.
“Oh yeah, the alarm was crazy,” Doncic said. “I mean, I just saw ‘Missiles, it’s coming. Missile, it’s coming.’ So I was a little scared.”
I’m sure he wasn’t the only one!
The Slovenian squad’s schedule starts tomorrow when they take on Venezuela. Hopefully Doncic and his teammates won’t have to run for their lives before it's over.
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