College Basketball's Biggest Mistake Discovered By An Attorney

Lawyer makes a catch of epic proportions.

By KATHRYN RUBINO
April 3, 2024 at 4:44 PM

Oopsie! (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

The women’s college basketball scene is having an f-ing moment. The ratings are through the roof. The talent is generational. There’s even a villain — which as every sports fan knows, really elevates the watching experience. It’d take a really bone-headed move to fumble the bag at this point.

…Women’s college basketball made a really bone-headed mistake. Seriously, it was an unforced error of epic proportions — and it all came to light thanks to an attorney.

One of the 3 point lines at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, was incorrectly marked out on the floor. And not just a little off — the line that demarcates 2 points versus 3 was 9 whole inches wrong on one side of the court. The error wasn’t caught for four full games at the court — and they were in the middle of the fifth when it was finally noticed. And that might never have happened if it weren’t for divorce attorney Michael McGrath.

He told the Willamette Week it was pretty obvious to him, “I saw it in like three seconds. Seriously. I mean, I walked in and one team was practicing on the correct side of the court, and you could just see that the other side was too short.” McGrath attributes the catch to his legal training, “I’m a lawyer, so that’s what I do all day long, I proofread stuff. I notice grammar mistakes. I do divorce, so half my job is negotiation and half is making sure that whatever we negotiate is accurate. That, and I’m probably just a nerd.”

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