Moving to a new city is never without its bumps, but what two-time NBA champion Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and his wife Mackenzie ran into when they arrived in Philadelphia was something else entirely. So on-brand for Philly, in fact, that it left the basketball world shaking their heads while locals couldn’t help but laugh. Fresh off signing with the Philadelphia 76ers after his stint with the Memphis Grizzlies, the couple was barely settled into their new luxury residence when Mackenzie took to TikTok to share a story that nobody saw coming.
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KCP posted her TikTok video to his own Instagram stories, confirming it. The incident unfolded during a wave of severe late-August summer storms in Philadelphia, where a First Alert weather warning was in effect as warm, humid air collided with an approaching cold front. Heavy rainfall and scattered thunderstorms battered the region, setting the stage for a dramatic scene on the top floor of the couple’s new apartment complex.
“Little backstory. My husband played for the Grizzlies last year, this year he’s on the 76ers. So I had to meet the movers that packed up everything from Memphis and move it to Philly. So I get here, I meet my moving coordinator, everything is going smoothly. Literally I’m here for maybe 30 minutes,” Mackenzie recalled in her viral video.
The situation turned chaotic just moments after completing the paperwork for the penthouse suite. “Minutes after I sign the lease, you guys, I hear the loudest bang I’ve ever heard in my life. Mind you, we’re on the penthouse floor, we’re on the highest floor, okay? I hear the loudest bang, all of a sudden [expletive] starts shooting out of the ceiling and water is pouring in, dumping in. So everyone just starts screaming and we’re like we have to get out of here. When I say what’s coming in it was like there was at least 2-3 inches of water in there before we even got out. We were like we have to go.”
The immediate aftermath required a chaotic evacuation down 14 flights of stairs while staff initially doubted what had transpired.
“I’m like you guys, I heard lightning and the front desk is trying to tell me like ‘no something just tripped the sprinklers.’ Girl you go up there, it’s Niagara Falls. That ain’t no sprinkler, girl. Like something bad just happened,” Mackenzie said.
The video she posted said it all. Water was pouring in through cracks in the ceiling, and not from sprinklers, while the floors around their still-unpacked boxes were completely flooded. If that wasn’t enough, the fire alarm was blaring in the background the whole time. A lightning strike had knocked out the elevators, leaving their movers completely stranded inside. Mackenzie even shared photos of the fire department having to come in and rescue them.
It wasn’t until emergency personnel and maintenance crews inspected the penthouse that the event’s extreme rarity was confirmed.
“So then hours later the electricians come, they’re like trying to fix everything, they turn off the sirens and all that and they say after everyone was denying that I heard what I heard why did the electrician say, ‘yeah, you got struck by lightning and there’s a 1 in 400 million chance of a unit getting struck the way this unit got struck.'”
The odds of that happening were too jawdropping not to share. Given the welcome the Caldwell-Popes got on their first day in Philly, fans had a lot of shock to unload.
Fans react to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s ‘electrifying’ arrival in Philly
As footage of water cascading into the Caldwell-Pope penthouse flooded social media, NBA fans immediately began debating whether the rare 1-in-400-million lightning strike was an omen of good fortune or a bizarre sign for Philadelphia’s newest addition.
Mackenzie’s video went viral on social media, drawing a flood (pun unintended) of comedic and hopeful comments from basketball fans trying to process the wild moving-day story.
Some fans instantly interpreted the freak act of nature as a cosmic green light for Philadelphia’s upcoming championship campaign, with one fan proclaiming, “That’s a sign. 76ers are winning it all. 🏀🏆”
Another fan took the dramatic entrance as a sign of electric things to come on the court, writing, “Hall of fame Sixers season loading.”
Knowing KCP’s reunion with LeBron James after they won the 2020 title with the Lakers, the electric signs are hard to ignore.
Others leaned into the city’s rich historical connections to lightning and electricity, invoking Philadelphia’s most famous founding father.
“Oh, that was just the spirit of Ben Franklin (i.e. the godfather of electricity) welcomin’ y’all to the bity, that’s all…LMAO 😂😅😂😅! 🌇⚡️🗝”
The metaphoric nature of the downpour was not lost on the local faithful either, as another fan extended a warm, albeit wet, greeting. “Baptized into Philly. Let’s go!!! Sorry for the inconvenience 😁”
Another commenter seized the opportunity to pull a Danny DeVito and joked, “But, it’s ALWAYS SUNNY in Philadelphia…WINK 😉! #WELCOME😂😅😂😅…”
Naturally, the sheer absurdity of the situation sparked hilarity about the timing of the strike right after the lease signing.
One fan bluntly laughed off the ordeal as a “his welcome to philly ahh moment 😂” while a more superstitious onlooker expressed concern for the guard’s upcoming season, posting, “he’s cursed”.
Despite all the chaos, the Caldwell-Pope family made it through safe and sound, and at the very least, they’ve got a story they’ll be telling for the rest of their lives. Now, as the 76ers gear up for the upcoming season, fans are hoping that the electric, one-in-400-million welcome their newest addition received is somehow a sign of things to come and that KCP brings that same kind of spark and energy when he steps onto the court.