Fever’s journey home from Seattle includes an eight-hour bus ride
Natalie Achonwa tweets about the Fever’s exhausting travel home from Seattle
The Indiana Fever were already looking at a long day of travel after their game at Seattle ended around 6:30 p.m. PT on Sunday.
Flight delays caused that journey to become far more difficult, culminating with the Fever being forced to take an eight-hour bus ride to get home.
According to tweets by Fever F/C Natalie Achonwa, the team was supposed to fly from Seattle to Atlanta to Indianapolis. They were planning on arriving in Indy around 9:00 a.m. ET today. Unfortunately, their flight out of Seattle was delayed by several hours. That meant the Fever missed their connecting flight in Atlanta. When they tried to book a new flight for the whole team, they were told there was nothing available today.
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The only option left was an 8-hour bus ride from Atlanta to Indianapolis. That means the Fever players, coaches, and staff won’t arrive home until this evening.
They host the Minnesota Lynx at 7:00 p.m. ET Tuesday.
Achonwa’s tweets detail the exhausting travel experience of 12 of the world’s best women’s basketball players. WNBA players are required to fly commercially.
game ended in Seattle at 6:30p. We’ve been at the airport since 7:45p. Flight was SUPPOSED to depart at 10:30p (had an hr layover in ATL, then to IND). Delayed till 11:30p. Board the plane, but now we just had to deplane for “mechanical issues”. pic.twitter.com/HeoqkDd28P
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) June 24, 2019
let’s try this again.... boarding a new airplane.
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) June 24, 2019
12:50AM: pic.twitter.com/wKdmRpcpae
UPDATE: 8:44AM, breakfast of champions.
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) June 24, 2019
soooo we made it to Atlanta... but EVERY flight to Indy is already overbooked.... and we have a 18 person travel party. 🙃 pic.twitter.com/PUoO9c1wUh
did I mention we had just played a game in Seattle? AND we play Minnesota tomorrow at 7p? pic.twitter.com/L3pX2Lrsy9
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) June 24, 2019
They even had some problems during their bus ride.
WE LITERALLY CANT MAKE THIS STUFF UP.
— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) June 24, 2019
pitstop #2. potential bus issues. pic.twitter.com/nbXrwEZgL6
High Post Hoops asked for comment from the team, but we were referred to the players’ social media posts.
As Achonwa stated in a tweet, the Fever were coming off a physical, hard-fought game at Seattle on Sunday evening. The Fever lost 65-61. It was Indiana’s third road game in five days. The Fever played at Atlanta on Wednesday and at Chicago on Friday.
Indiana will have more long flights this week. After hosting the Lynx on Tuesday, Indiana plays at Phoenix on Friday, June 28. They play at Vegas a day later.
The Fever are certainly not the first WNBA team who has endured exhausting travel experiences. In August 2018, the Las Vegas Aces chose not to play a game at Washington when flight delays caused them to arrive in DC just hours before tipoff. The players documented their frustrating travel experience on social media.
Improving travel experience has become an important issue for WNBA players. When Nneka Ogwumike wrote in November 2018 that the WNBAPA was opting out of the CBA, she cited frustrating travel conditions as one thing she wants the league to improve. The current CBA expires after this season.
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