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.
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…
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