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.
据圣安东尼奥当地媒体《马刺国度》报导，马刺后卫Danny Green在接受采访时爆料
了球队在去年11月末爆发的那次著名“轮休事件”的内幕。Green表示，主帅波波维
奇之所以会做出让GDP和自己“轮休”的决定，其实是由飞机故障造成的。
去年11月30日 ，马刺在结束了五连客之后，终于迎来了这次魔鬼客场之旅的最后一
战，对手则是强大的卫冕冠军迈阿密热火。 艰苦的赛程让年迈的马刺有些吃不消，
因此，主帅波波维奇赛前决定，让 Tim Duncan、 Tony Parker、 Manu Ginobili和
Danny Green四人“轮休”，并让他们提前返回了圣安东尼奥。此举让NBA总裁David
Stern十分愤怒，Stern也在随后做出了向波波维奇罚款25万美金的决定。 这件事也
曾一度引起联盟的热烈讨论。
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在接受采访时透露，球队原先是计划让队员们乘坐私人飞机奔赴迈阿密，但不
料飞机却在起飞前发生了故障。
“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.
“我们当时已经在飞机上了，”Green说到，“但是飞机始终无法起飞。乘务人员曾
试图去排除故障，但最终得出的结论是当时起飞则会很不安全。”
“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解释到，球队最初希望能在与热火队比赛的前一天晚上到达迈阿密，但飞机故
障让他们不得不改变这一计划。 马刺队员最终兵分两路，一行人改乘商业飞机继续
飞往迈阿密，GDP等人则在第二天直接飞回圣安东尼奥。
“其他队员们选择乘坐了之后最早的一班商业飞机。 我们并不是故意在第二天直接
飞回圣安东尼奥，让大家知道我们不会出现在与热火的比赛场上。 原本的计划是在
比赛前一天晚上就达到迈阿密，这样我们就可以有更多的休息时间。 很显然，事情
并没有按照我们事先计划地那样进行。”
“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.
“当时，这件事就没那么有趣，尤其是在我们遭到了联盟的罚款之后。 但现在回过
头来想想，这只是一件我们需要经历的事情而已。 我们在机场看见了许多守候着的
媒体。那个时候，我们就知道这件事情已经成了一件大事了。”
“Luckily it was Southwest, so you get to pick your seat. I had decent leg
space.”
“幸运的是这是西南航空，所以你可以挑选坐位。 我的位子可以有腿部的伸展空间
。”
翻译参考：http://sports.sina.com.cn/nba/2013-06-06/09506607325.shtml
原文来源：http://tinyurl.com/m8ftxk2