CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Can't a guy just be left to his video games and snacks?
That was the plan for Charlotte Hornets center Frank Kaminsky Thursday afternoon, as it often is following practice: Play "Fortnite" and eat Cheez-Its. That plan changed when the fire alarm went off in the Charlotte high-rise where Kaminsky lives.
Normally, Kamsinky blows off the warning, expecting a quick announcement that was just a test of the system. This time, residents of the building were told to evacuate in response to a bomb threat.
"I had to walk down 49 stories because they shut off the elevators. Instead of grabbing my keys and my wallet, I grabbed a box of Cheez-Its for the long journey down," Kaminsky recalled after shoot-around Friday morning.
"About three stories down, there was a lady with a baby and a dog and a couple of other things she had to carry, so I just helped her carry the baby."
Kaminsky said he's lived in that building the past four years and he knew the mother who needed his help, so it was no big deal. "I'm just a good Samaritan, not a hero," Kaminsky said with a chuckle.
The bomb threat, one of many called in around Charlotte and the country Thursday, did leave Kaminsky and his neighbors stranded for a while at street level. It wasn't just getting clearance to return, it was waiting for the elevators to be reactivated.
"I'm not walking back up 49 floors," Kaminsky said. "That's just not a thing that's going to happen."
