We won and then…

we slept in the plane.

In the Argentine newspaper, La Nación, Manu tells his experience of sleeping aboard the plane after game 7. Here I translate an excerpt from his chronicle.

Let me tell, that after the 7^th game in New Orleans, something incredible happened to us that made me remember my travels through Andino or Estudiantes. Now that I think about it, I have not experienced this even in the worst moments in Argentina. As soon as the game was over, Pop asked us to hurry, so that we could leave as soon as possible, so that we could travel over here and rest. We obeyed every word. At 11:30, we were all on the plane, ready for takeoff. Then we were told that there were some problems and would take one or two hours to fix them. We didn’t care. We had just won a difficult series! We continued to chat. We were happy and didn’t pay attention to the time. After two hours, we were told that the problem was not fixable. They called to the hotel to return and sleep in New Orleans. But there wasn’t any room. Four people began to look for accommodations. They called to 25 different hotels; from the 500 dollars a night to the 29.99, those that I had once stayed with Pancho Jasen when I came to the United States on vacation in 2000. But there were conventions in the city. Impossible, all were occupied.

We didn’t have any choice but to ask permission to sleep in the plane. Some started playing cards, others began to read or watch movies. The worst was that most, like Tony Parker and I, were not accustomed to sleeping in the seats. We therefore threw ourselves on the floor, crossing the aisle. Imagine seeing persons of two meters in length sleeping like this. It was an amusing image. We agreed that at 3 in the morning the lights would be turned off and . . . we had to get ready. Fabri and I told the rest: “Don’t worry about it, we grew up like this.” In the end, the trip from Los Angeles took 11 hours, when in normal conditions it would not exceed four. Also, with the difference in time zones, we arrived over here at 8:30 So I asked for breakfast in my room and then slept. It was all so strange. I would say that it was a siesta at 10 in the morning. We were dead and unable to practice. Apart, we had to play against the Lakers. It was strange. We had four days of rest between the 6^th and 7^th game with New Orleans but one before playing in the final.

La Nación