For the Houston Rockets, the word rocketship took on a whole new meaning on Wednesday.Thanks (or no thanks) to a broken cable that has closed the Bay Bridge, the Rockets were faced with two choices to get from their hotel in San Francisco to Oracle Arena in Oakland to play the Warriors.
They could either take a different bridge, which would have made it a three-hour bus ride or, they could go by ferry.
Knowing that most NBA players like to arrive on the second (i.e. last) of two buses that take teams to games, guess what mode of transport they chose?
Yar! Ye be right if you guessed the Rockets shipped themselves across the San Francisco Bay by boat. Hopefully, there were commuters who took pictures of the 40 players, coaches and other Rockets' staff clambering onto the upper deck of a ferry.
Yet, not every Rocket player embraced the idea of heading out to sea.
"I'm a BART guy," Chuck Hayes, the Rockets only Northern California native said. "Get me on the underground train and I'm good. I was a little nervous. You see so many movies where boats sink."
Thankfully, the San Francisco Bay is free World War II Axis submarines or of icebergs and none of the Rockets were reduced to shark chum. Thanks to their alternative transportation, the Rockets made tipoff in plenty of time. They had their land legs, too, edging the Warriors, 108-107.
