People Are Joking That ‘Space Jam’ Predicted The NBA Season Suspension

Everybody get up, it’s time to tweet now.

Following the NBA’s suspension of the season on Wednesday due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told an ESPN reporter, “It seemed more like out of a movie than reality.”

Well, many on Twitter agree.

After the news of the suspension, “Space Jam”— the 1996 movie about Michael Jordan helping the Looney Tunes win a basketball game against aliens — began trending on Twitter, with people pointing out how it strangely echoes real life.

In the movie, cartoon aliens steal the talent from prominent NBA players to use in the game against the Looney Tunes, naturally. However, with the non-cartoon world unaware of all this, everyone thinks the NBA stars are being affected by a strange illness, and eventually the season is suspended.

Fast forward to 2020, and the NBA is actually suspending games due to an illness.

In addition to a scene in the movie showing the season being canceled, another shows players wearing gas masks, much like some celebrities are sporting lately, and former NBA star Vlade Divac saying it’s like “invasion of the body snatchers.” 

Coincidentally, the movie came to Netflix this month and is currently trending in the site’s Top 10, which likely led more people to point out how the movie “predicted” this. 

The NBA’s own Isaiah Thomas tweeted about the connection too.

Perhaps even more bizarrely, some also pointed out how commercials for the “Space Jam” VHS tape promoted the release date of March 11, which happens to be the same date the NBA suspension was announced.

Though the connections are strange, no, “Space Jam” didn’t predict any of what’s happening now because, sadly, “Space Jam” isn’t real life. Aliens aren’t trying to play the Looney Tunes in basketball, there’s no golf hole where you get sucked into a cartoon dimension and Bill Murray isn’t a secret NBA star out here breaking ankles.

Though when HuffPost spoke with the actor who played Michael Jordan’s daughter in the movie in 2016, she did say he could really stretch his arm like that.