Mike Gansey China Trip Day 1: Can Somebody Tell Me What Day It Is?

Thirty straight hours!  That is approximately the time I have been in an airport or on a plane.  I have finally got back to my room after dinner with fellow D-Leaguers Kyle McAlarney,  Ryan Ayers, and NBA China’s best - Joseph Ye - here at the unbelievable Sheraton Chengdu Lido Hotel. It is 11pm Thursday right now and all this started as I left at 4:45am Wednesday (China time is 12 hours ahead) when my driver/butler (yes, that’s right, butler) picked me up in a town car to the airport.

I flew Cleveland to Newark, and then took the longest flight of my life to Shanghai, China.  Amazingly, I was on first class for both flights and therefore it was the best travel of my life.  Still, I had one more flight to catch from Shanghai and I just knew it couldn’t go this smooth the whole way.

I slept the entire way to Newark and it was wonderful, but to Shanghai I was surprised to hear that all the other players and staff would be on different flights to China.  The only people I knew on my flight were Dwayne Killings (works for D-League and set this trip up) and the New Jersey Nets Dancers. 

When I got to my seat for the flight to Shanghai the map screen in front of me read - Time to destination: 15 hr 47min and Miles to destination: 7,986 miles.

The D-League travel has been torturous all season long and I finally got a break on this flight.  I had a row to myself sitting in first-class and my chair/recliner turned into a BED!  The TV screen in front of me had 335 movies and 119 short TV programs to choose from.  I ended up watching The Blind Side, Couples Retreat, and Meet the Fockers when I wasn’t sleeping.  From the in-flight menu I had a grilled striped bass and crabmeat for dinner as well as the twenty other different kinds of appetizer/fruit selections they seemed to offer us.  The way they were bringing out the food, I thought I was going to be eating the entire flight - it was that much food!

My last flight was Shanghai to Chengdu via Air China and for whatever reason the legroom in this plane was non-existent.  In most regular airplanes the legroom isn’t great, but at least you can deal with it.  Not on Air China.  I was the tallest person on this full flight and to make things worse it was three hours long (Scott's note: keep in mind Gansey's like 6-foot-5 with heels on).   This was definitely the longest and most uncomfortable three hours of my life without a question.

It is truly remarkable how big China is and the amount of people that are everywhere.  Now I'm looking forward to getting some rest because I have a very busy day tomorrow with clinics, events, as well as practice.  And, finally, I get to meet my Run TMC partner Chris Mullin.

Talk to you tomorrow…