Spoiler:
Holman: We’ve also had some crazy travel stories.
Like what?
Holman: Well, we almost got killed in Orlando.
What?
Rathbun: We were on one of those fancy, schmancy planes. We were playing a back-to-back. We were in Miami, and we were going to Orlando. It’s only a 30-minute flight, so it wasn’t a big deal. This is before the age of cellphones. So we’re driving on a bus at the Miami airport, and a storm comes through. It’s a pretty big one. We are noticing that there are some planes that are tipped over on their sides. There was a lot of chaos on the ground. The storm moved on — great. We get on the plane. It was one of those planes that had a couch in the back. You could strap in, but it wasn’t what it was now like we have with Delta.
Holman: You missed the part that when we were taxiing on the runway, you can look out and see the planes that are tipped over on the side of the runway. We were looking around at each other and saying, “This doesn’t look right.”
Rathbun: We had a real cowboy for a pilot. So up we go. Miami to Orlando. We can’t land. That storm has settled over central Florida. We cannot land. You look out the window, and you see other planes trying to land, but we’re all circling. The story goes — correct me if I’m wrong, Steve — they were asking the pilots, “Does anyone want to try this?” So our guy volunteers. The storm is hovering at around 10,000 feet. It’s nasty. The wind was so strong. We start coming down and are bouncing like a basketball. He’s trying to land this thing, and it’s not going well. Mookie runs to the back of the plane, and he says to the flight attendant, “Give me a beer!” She says, “I’m sorry but we don’t serve alcohol on this plane.” He says again, “Give me a beer!” So he takes a warm beer and downs it. (Dikembe) Mutombo is speaking in tongues at the front of the plane.
Holman: Cadillac Anderson was wearing his traditional red suit and standing in the middle of the aisle screaming, “Help us, Jesus.” I’m not sure if he was half-joking or half-serious. (Steve Smith) was yelling out other options that we should fly to. We try to land, and we almost crash.
Rathbun: I’m sitting in a window seat, and we are about 100 feet off the ground, and the wind just tips us, and I swear to God, we are looking directly at the ground out of the window.
Holman: This is not an exaggeration. This is not an exaggeration.
Rathbun: If we clip the wing, we are dead. He jerks it back and floors it. We go straight up into the air like if it was the Apollo launch.
Holman: You know how Lenny (Wilkens) has that combover, right? Well, his hair was standing straight up.
Rathbun: (Former GM) Pete Babcock is on the flight. Now we’re back up in the air and circling again. The pilot comes on the speaker and says, “I only put enough fuel in this thing to go to Orlando. We are running out of gas.” So, we were screaming out, “Can we go to Tampa? Can we go to Jacksonville? Can we go somewhere? Can we go back to Miami?” And he says, “Not really.” So, we have to land. By now, it’s 2 a.m. When we’re circling, it’s fine. It’s only when we go down that the rock and rolling starts. That sucker got that thing down somehow. We’re all so thrilled to be alive. We are kissing the tarmac. We want to tell everyone that we’re OK, but no one knows we’ve been in trouble. There’s no internet on the plane. There’s nothing. They just know we’re late.
Holman: It was the weirdest thing. We get to the hotel, and there wasn’t one word that was said amongst anybody. We get to the Downtown Marriott, and everyone got off the bus and got their bags, and no one said a word to anybody. I’ve never seen
Like what?
Holman: Well, we almost got killed in Orlando.
What?
Rathbun: We were on one of those fancy, schmancy planes. We were playing a back-to-back. We were in Miami, and we were going to Orlando. It’s only a 30-minute flight, so it wasn’t a big deal. This is before the age of cellphones. So we’re driving on a bus at the Miami airport, and a storm comes through. It’s a pretty big one. We are noticing that there are some planes that are tipped over on their sides. There was a lot of chaos on the ground. The storm moved on — great. We get on the plane. It was one of those planes that had a couch in the back. You could strap in, but it wasn’t what it was now like we have with Delta.
Holman: You missed the part that when we were taxiing on the runway, you can look out and see the planes that are tipped over on the side of the runway. We were looking around at each other and saying, “This doesn’t look right.”
Rathbun: We had a real cowboy for a pilot. So up we go. Miami to Orlando. We can’t land. That storm has settled over central Florida. We cannot land. You look out the window, and you see other planes trying to land, but we’re all circling. The story goes — correct me if I’m wrong, Steve — they were asking the pilots, “Does anyone want to try this?” So our guy volunteers. The storm is hovering at around 10,000 feet. It’s nasty. The wind was so strong. We start coming down and are bouncing like a basketball. He’s trying to land this thing, and it’s not going well. Mookie runs to the back of the plane, and he says to the flight attendant, “Give me a beer!” She says, “I’m sorry but we don’t serve alcohol on this plane.” He says again, “Give me a beer!” So he takes a warm beer and downs it. (Dikembe) Mutombo is speaking in tongues at the front of the plane.
Holman: Cadillac Anderson was wearing his traditional red suit and standing in the middle of the aisle screaming, “Help us, Jesus.” I’m not sure if he was half-joking or half-serious. (Steve Smith) was yelling out other options that we should fly to. We try to land, and we almost crash.
Rathbun: I’m sitting in a window seat, and we are about 100 feet off the ground, and the wind just tips us, and I swear to God, we are looking directly at the ground out of the window.
Holman: This is not an exaggeration. This is not an exaggeration.
Rathbun: If we clip the wing, we are dead. He jerks it back and floors it. We go straight up into the air like if it was the Apollo launch.
Holman: You know how Lenny (Wilkens) has that combover, right? Well, his hair was standing straight up.
Rathbun: (Former GM) Pete Babcock is on the flight. Now we’re back up in the air and circling again. The pilot comes on the speaker and says, “I only put enough fuel in this thing to go to Orlando. We are running out of gas.” So, we were screaming out, “Can we go to Tampa? Can we go to Jacksonville? Can we go somewhere? Can we go back to Miami?” And he says, “Not really.” So, we have to land. By now, it’s 2 a.m. When we’re circling, it’s fine. It’s only when we go down that the rock and rolling starts. That sucker got that thing down somehow. We’re all so thrilled to be alive. We are kissing the tarmac. We want to tell everyone that we’re OK, but no one knows we’ve been in trouble. There’s no internet on the plane. There’s nothing. They just know we’re late.
Holman: It was the weirdest thing. We get to the hotel, and there wasn’t one word that was said amongst anybody. We get to the Downtown Marriott, and everyone got off the bus and got their bags, and no one said a word to anybody. I’ve never seen
