The Lakers didn’t just ditch the bright yellow NBA Cup floor for aesthetics; they abandoned it because their players no longer trusted it. And when Luka Doncic calls something “slippery” and “dangerous,” the league can’t shrug it off as a minor cosmetic glitch. His warning wasn’t an isolated complaint, and by the time the Mavericks landed in Los Angeles, the Cup court at Crypto.com Arena had already failed multiple on-site safety checks.

Those failures weren’t about looks, branding, or optics. They were about the league’s newest experiment colliding with the reality of NBA-caliber explosiveness. And for once, marketing had to take a back seat.

The Lakers were supposed to roll out their signature neon Cup court again against the Mavericks. They didn’t because league-approved technicians ruled the floor “unplayable.”

Players felt it first.

During the previous Lakers–Clippers Cup game, Luka Doncic didn’t sugarcoat a thing. “Just the courts, please… It’s just slippery, it’s dangerous,” Doncic said after slipping several times.

He wasn’t alone. Rui Hachimura said he felt something was wrong during warmups, describing the surface as “weird… oily, slippery.” Multiple Lakers players were swapping to fresh sneakers to find better bite, a tell that traction had become unpredictable.

By the next morning, Robbins technicians, the group that manufactures all NBA Cup courts, performed traction and moisture audits on the floor. Their readings reportedly exceeded acceptable thresholds, a sign the surface coating hadn’t fully cured. Installation staff also noticed “residue pull” on TA tape tests, meaning the top layer was still releasing microscopic oil even after multiple dry mops.

That was enough for the Lakers to pull the plug. By early afternoon, the Cup court was being lifted panel by panel while the standard hardwood was wheeled back in. The NBA’s in-season tournament courts use the same maple base, but with one big twist: they’re painted wall-to-wall instead of exposing wood grain. The finish is legal. The problem is what happens when you drop that fully painted surface onto an arena floor that was hosting an NHL game barely a night earlier.

Crypto.com Arena had the L.A. Kings on Nov. 25, giving the operations crew less than 18 hours to freeze ice, lay subfloor, and install the Cup court for Lakers–Clippers on Nov. 26. Moisture trapped between layers is the number one enemy of traction. And in arenas with aggressive HVAC cycling, Crypto is notorious for this condensation can take longer to settle.

A Robbins manager noted that courts installed after hockey games are the most susceptible to “oily” feel due to vapor rising from the ice layer. Even after multiple sweeps, pockets of slickness can remain. That issue becomes far more pronounced when the entire floor is coated in uninterrupted paint rather than breathable hardwood.

The NBA consolidated all Cup court manufacturing under Robbins to standardize quality, but the Lakers case shows that venue conditions still trump production consistency.

Players Across the League Have Been Raising Red Flags

This wasn’t the first time a Cup court sounded alarms.

• In 2023, Jaylen Brown injured his groin after slipping on Boston’s Cup court, calling it “kind of unacceptable.”

• Tyrese Haliburton said his Indiana court felt “slick to start,” adding he was “sliding everywhere.”

• Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had two awkward slips on Sacramento’s Cup court in 2023, prompting Mark Daigneault to admit the floor “didn’t feel NBA standard early on.”

Cup courts are meant to boost the tournament’s visual identity. Instead, players have begun treating them like hazards they need to consciously adapt to shooting more jumpers, avoiding sharp plants, or slowing down drives.

Doncic’s comments only amplified what players had quietly been hinting at for two years.

While players worried about safety, ESPN and TNT crews had a different problem: the reflection off the Lakers’ neon court. Camera operators reportedly struggled with white balance and motion-tracking due to how aggressively the yellow paint bounced light back into lenses.

That feedback reached the league office, adding another layer of urgency to the already growing traction concerns. When both the talent and the broadcast product suffer, the NBA reevaluates quickly.

The league hasn’t issued an official statement on the Lakers’ specific Cup court failure, but Adam Silver already acknowledged earlier in 2025 that Cup court designs would undergo tweaks. After Doncic’s complaint, the Lakers’ staff performed enhanced traction checks, but once the surface failed multiple tests, both sides agreed to revert to the standard floor.

The Cup court has since been shipped back to Robbins for resurfacing. Sources expect redesigned panels to return sometime in early 2026, meaning the Lakers may not use a Cup surface again during this year’s group stage.

More importantly, league insiders say the NBA is moving toward a mandatory pregame traction certification, especially for full-paint floors. It’s one of the most direct acknowledgments yet that player feedback is reshaping the tournament’s infrastructure.

The Lakers didn’t make a branding choice; they made a safety decision. And they did it because a superstar publicly called out the problem, their own players backed it up, and league technicians verified it.

It also means the NBA Cup’s boldest visual signature may be entering a redesign era. Between traction issues, condensation risks in dual-use arenas, and broadcast interference, the league has more than enough data to justify evolution.

For now, though, the Lakers will keep playing on familiar hardwood. The Cup can wait. Player safety can’t.