The Perth Wildcats open their NBL season on Thursday away to the Brisbane Bullets and captain Damian Martin decided to give coach Trevor Gleeson a bit of a scare before the side flew out.
Martin and his wife Brittany have been settling into life as new parents since September which was the springboard to test the patience of Gleeson on 929 breakfast show Heidi, Will and Woody with a prank call.
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Wildcat Damian Martin pranks coach on 929
Martin asks his coach if it's possible for him to miss the opening game of the season. The silence is painful. Audio: 929.
"I'm not too bad, a little stressed out, Brittany has done a lot recently and not sleeping that well and she's wondering if I'd be able to stick at home?" he asked.
Gleeson's first reaction was to make sure Martin's wife was okay.
"She's like it's the first game of the season it doesn't matter that much, any chance you could stick around for a couple of days and get ready for Saturday? [Perth's first home game]."
The request was followed with seconds of painful silence.
"Mate, mate, mate, you're putting me in a bit of a pickle here," Gleeson said.
Martin then throws up another excuse that his daughter Maggie could take her first steps and didn't want to miss it - that was followed by more seconds of tense silence.
It became clear Martin was too scared to string his coach along any more.
"Trev you should defiantly listen to 929 shortly because it's getting a run."
The coach took it in good spirits, but the prank may hurt the Wildcat fan favourite in the long run.
"You'll see me sitting on the bench now that I won't be playing courtesy of Trev."
The Wildcats face Brisbane on Thursday, which will be the Bullets first game in eight years, after they disbanded in 2008.
The Cats then return to Perth for their opening home game against the Cairns Taipans at Perth Arena on Saturday.