Travel headaches delay Sonics' arrival

By Kent Youngblood, Star Tribune

Last update: December 29, 2006 - 11:29 PM

Oh, the glamorous life of the NBA basketball player.

Take the Seattle Supersonics, who barely made it to Target Center for Friday's game with the Timberwolves. Getting whipped by the Denver Nuggets on Thursday was only the start of a horrible night.

The team had wondered all day if the snowstorm in Denver would prevent them from flying out. After the game, the word came that the flight was on. So the players and coaches jumped on the bus, rode 30 minutes to the airport and boarded the plane.

And waited 2½ hours. Weather? No, mechanical problems. So everyone got back on the bus, rode 30 minutes back to Denver and checked back into the hotel.

Sleep? The team didn't get to bed until 4 a.m. They had to be back on the bus by 9:30. The flight didn't leave till mid-day, arriving in the Twin Cities at 2:40 p.m. The team barely had time to check into a hotel before everyone had to leave for Target Center.

"It's kind of rough," said Sonics forward Chris Wilcox before the game, displaying an art for understatement. "I think it could be rough for us tonight. But once we get the first quarter under our belts we should be OK ... There will be days like that, when the weather doesn't cooperate."

To add insult to injury, the Sonics sat and watched as the Nuggets, bound for their game against the Hornets, took off as their plane sat idle.

"You can't worry about it," Sonics guard Luke Ridnour said. "You still have to come to play."

Asked if he could recall a worse day of travel, Sonics coach Bob Hill thought back to a time when he was coaching in Indiana.

"We played in New Jersey, then went to the airport, but the gas truck backed into the wing of the plane," Hill recalled. "We went back to the hotel, then flew here the next day."

Those Pacers got to the Twin Cities for a game with the Wolves with barely enough time for a walkthrough. But they won that night.

"Sometimes under these circumstances, they play OK," Hill said. "You just never know."

Cigars all around

Meanwhile, Seattle guard Ray Allen -- whose fiancée delivered a son via C-section on Wednesday -- missed the Sonics' game in Denver. With his fiancée and son (Walker Reese Allen) recuperating, Allen flew to the Twin Cities from Seattle on Friday, beating his teammates to Minnesota.

But he wasn't the only new father.

Wolves guard Mike James lost some sleep to be with his wife, Angela, who gave birth to a daughter shortly after 10 a.m. Friday.

"She had contractions early in the morning so we were up early," James said. "I've been up since about 6. But everything went well. Ten fingers, 10 toes, everybody's healthy. A great day."

Michael Micayah James was the couple's third child.

Early retirement

Two Wolves will be honored during the team's two-game road swing to New Jersey and Carolina.

First, rookie guard Randy Foye will have his high school jersey retired today before the Wolves' game in New Jersey. Foye attended East Side High in Newark, N.J.

On Sunday Rashad McCants will have his jersey hung from the rafters of the Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus. The school also will honor Sean May and Raymond Felton at halftime of the UNC-Dayton game.

Kent Youngblood • kyoungblood@startribune.com

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