Green recounts infamous Southwest flight
Posted on June 5, 2013 at 6:04 pm by Dan McCarney
MIAMI –Imagine the experience.
You’re John Q. Public, heading to San Antonio for a quick business trip, and
none other than Tim Duncan sits down beside you on your early-morning flight
from Orlando.
Such was the scene last November, when Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and
Danny Green were shuttled home via commercial air in advance of what had been
slated as a marquee matchup in Miami with the defending champion Heat.
“I could (see the humor),” Green said Wednesday. “The media had a lot of
fun with it.”
One person who didn’t was NBA commissioner David Stern, who followed through
on his pregame threat of “substantial sanctions” — now a catch prase in
Spurs lore — with a $250,000 fine even though they battled the Heat down to
the wire of a 105-100 defeat.
That the quartet flew home via Southwest on gameday only added to the
impression that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was thumbing his nose at Stern as
much resting his players at the back end of a four-game, five-day road trip.
據聖安東尼奧當地媒體《馬刺國度》報導，馬刺後衛Danny Green在接受採訪時爆料
了球隊在去年11月末爆發的那次著名“輪休事件”的內幕。Green表示，主帥波波維
奇之所以會做出讓GDP和自己“輪休”的決定，其實是由飛機故障造成的。
去年11月30日 ，馬刺在結束了五連客之後，終於迎來了這次魔鬼客場之旅的最後一
戰，對手則是強大的衛冕冠軍邁阿密熱火。 艱苦的賽程讓年邁的馬刺有些吃不消，
因此，主帥波波維奇賽前決定，讓 Tim Duncan、 Tony Parker、 Manu Ginobili和
Danny Green四人“輪休”，並讓他們提前返回了聖安東尼奧。此舉讓NBA總裁David
Stern十分憤怒，Stern也在隨後做出了向波波維奇罰款25萬美金的決定。 這件事也
曾一度引起聯盟的熱烈討論。
Green, however, said the original plan had been for the players to take a
private jet the night before mechanical issues forced a change of plans.
Green在接受採訪時透露，球隊原先是計劃讓隊員們乘坐私人飛機奔赴邁阿密，但不
料飛機卻在起飛前發生了故障。
“We were on the plane,” he said. “but we didn’t move anywhere. We were
just looking at some things, trying to clean it out and they found out…it
wasn’t safe to take off in that plane.
「我們當時已經在飛機上了，」Green說到，「但是飛機始終無法起飛。乘務人員曾
試圖去排除故障，但最終得出的結論是當時起飛則會很不安全。」
“And they checked out the next earliest flight, it was commercial. We didn’
t purposely go Southwest the next day to let everyone know we weren’t going
to play. The plan was supposed to be getting back the night before so we
could have more rest. Obviously it didn’t work out the way we wanted to.
Green解釋到，球隊最初希望能在與熱火隊比賽的前一天晚上到達邁阿密，但飛機故
障讓他們不得不改變這一計劃。 馬刺隊員最終兵分兩路，一行人改乘商業飛機繼續
飛往邁阿密，GDP等人則在第二天直接飛回聖安東尼奧。
「其他隊員們選擇乘坐了之後最早的一班商業飛機。 我們並不是故意在第二天直接
飛回聖安東尼奧，讓大家知道我們不會出現在與熱火的比賽場上。 原本的計劃是在
比賽前一天晚上就達到邁阿密，這樣我們就可以有更多的休息時間。 很顯然，事情
並沒有按照我們事先計劃地那樣進行。」
“At the time, it wasn’t as funny, especially when we got the fine. But
afterward, looking back at it, it’s one of the things you go through. We saw
a lot of you guys (media) at the airport. At that point, we knew it was going
to be a big deal.
「當時，這件事就沒那麼有趣，尤其是在我們遭到了聯盟的罰款之後。 但現在回過
頭來想想，這只是一件我們需要經歷的事情而已。 我們在機場看見了許多守候著的
媒體。那個時候，我們就知道這件事情已經成了一件大事了。」
“Luckily it was Southwest, so you get to pick your seat. I had decent leg
space.”
「幸運的是這是西南航空，所以你可以挑選坐位。 我的位子可以有腿部的伸展空間
。」
翻譯參考：http://sports.sina.com.cn/nba/2013-06-06/09506607325.shtml
原文來源：http://tinyurl.com/m8ftxk2