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Klay Thompson Breaks Silence on Travel Fatigue After Plane’s Issues Resulted in Nightmare Voyage

Published 03/01/2024, 11:30 PM EST

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USA Today via Reuters

The Golden State Warriors recently faced off against the Toronto Raptors at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. Having secured a win against the New York Knicks barely a few hours ago, it would have been extremely fatiguing for the team to play back-to-back games. It didn’t help the situation, however, when unexpected circumstances befell the team.

According to ‘The Athletic’ journalist Anthony Slater, the plane that was supposed to fly the Warriors to the location of their next game experienced some ‘mechanical issues’, due to which the flight didn’t take off until 5 am. Slater also reported that the team didn’t make it to their hotel “until after 7 am.” Despite the delay and the lack of sufficient rest, the team ended up defeating their rivals by a score of 120-105.

When asked about the incident, Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson replied that the unexpected delay did not result in him not getting sufficient rest, as he managed to sleep from 8 am to 3 pm. “That’s good enough. That’s good enough. You want eight, but sometimes you got to do whatever’s necessary” said Thompson in a statement.

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The decision to include Thompson in the starting lineup was made by team coach Steve Kerr after rookie Brandin Podziemski’s right sore knee prevented him from participating. When asked about the unexpected delay, Kerr replied that the team felt great and were not that affected with what occurred.

“I think this might have been the worst one. You always have a few delays during the year, but those generally last a few hours and this was a tough night” said Kerr before the game. “Basically spent the night on the plane . . . so here we are, ready to go.”

Klay Thompson made a return to the basketball court during this recent game after being benched during the previous six. While he did not manage to perform as well as Stephen Curry and some of his other teammates, the 34-year-old still ended up contributing 14 points, 7 rebounds and 1 assist to the overall score.

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Denver Nuggets coach joked about “singing songs” and “holding hands” during their unexpected delay

Klay Thompson and his teammates were not the only players who had to experience this unforeseen circumstance. It was barely two months ago when the Denver Nuggets were forced to be stuck on a plane for 8+ hours as the plane that was supposed to take them to Philadelphia had it’s engines “frozen”. The plane that was supposed to land by 5pm ended up taking off at the same time from Denver.

Throughout the ordeal, the players and team coach Michael Malone attempted to make the most of a bad situation.

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“We sung some songs, held hands,” Michael Malone joked during a statement. “We made the most of the moment.”

The Warriors are currently on a three-game winning streak. While their future success would depend on the performance of the team as a whole, another factor that would play a vital role in the same is to ensure that the team gets their required rest and actually manages to reach the playing venue on time.

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Written by:

Ashmit Kumar

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Ashmit is an NBA Content Analyst at EssentiallySports. Having started as a writer, he specializes in writing captivating stories that include the elements of in-depth coverage of teams, players and more. Due to his knowledge of the technicalities of the sport, Ashmit writes perspective pieces that provide well-researched analysis.
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Edited by:

Aazima Basharat