The Blazer's Misadventures After the Minnesota Game

This is taken straight from Mike Barrets blog, but I thought it was the best story (and funniest) this year.  The team's misadventures after their win in Minnesota:

    We pulled away from the Target Center and started heading down the busiest street in downtown Minneapolis. The bus then stopped. So, we sat. Sergio Rodriguez began playing Spanish hip-hop music off his laptop (not the first time this has happened). The players let it go, for a few minutes. Then, it happened. Sergio started The Macarena, and he and Rudy knew every word, and most of the dance moves. Over and over again, The Macarena, complete with Spanish lyrics, sung loudly by The Spanish Armada. They beamed, as if this was one of their prouder moments of the season. By popular demand, this didn't last. Sergio then turned to a Michael Jackson featurette, which started with Thriller, sung by Jerryd Bayless, who knew all the words.

    After about 20 minutes of this, and the driver trying to get things figured out, he finally threw up his hands and said we had a couple of options- wait 30 minutes for a new bus to pick us up, or start hailing cabs. We chose the latter.

    It was a you-had-to-be-there moment, so this probably won't translate very well, but local cabbies probably thought it was like Christmas morning, as they saw an entire NBA team, with coaches, broadcasters, and other personnel, pour into the street waiving their arms. When I got off the bus I felt like I was in a marketplace in some foreign country. The cab drivers were battling with each other, trying to get us into their cabs, yelling and grabbing bags, knowing they had scored.

    A cabbie grabbed my bag out of my arm, and started heading for his cab, which was a few cars back. He was intercepted by another cabbie who said he had been waiting longer, and they nearly came to blows. It was the free market at work. I finally hopped in with the cabbie who was big enough to win the battle. Behind me were PR guru Collin Romer, and Rebecca Haarlow, and we were off like a dirty shirt, urging our driver to gain pole position in this mass chaos.

    As most things with a team do, this turned into a competition, or a race (speed limits pretty much obeyed), to the hanger. So, with cigarette smoke trailing our every move (not ours, the driver's), and no seat belts to be found, it was a NASCAR-style battle through town and down the freeway. We threatened a bigger tip for the higher the finish. I assume that was happening in all the cabs. I thought we had the lead for a while, but other drivers evidently knew shortcuts, and we finished in about fifth place. I wanted to at least be on the podium, and we let the driver know about our disappointment. At least we were there, and it only cost us, in total, about a 45-minute delay.

    Again, this probably won't be as funny as it was to actually be there, but unlike New York City, all these cabs looked different. There were big vans, regular-looking cabs, and just cars that were turned into cabs by individuals. No two cabs looked the same.

    With most of us standing around, waiting to enter the corporate flight facility, the last cab pulled in. You could hear it coming. It was not the engine, it was the sound system. The bumping of loud, loud bass was rattling the windows of the other cabs, and this was a tiny little car. It was lowered, had dingle balls around the windows, ground-effect lighting, and a hula girl on the dash (straight out of a movie). The windows were down (it was 10 degrees, mind you), and all we could see were heads bobbing to the music, and arms flapping up and down out the windows, keeping time with the song. We could then see who was inside- Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge, all smiles, and absolutely rocking out to this insanely loud hip-hop. Again, you probably had to be there, but it was hilarious. Oden climbed out, laughing, and then explained that this driver had let them experience one of his own mix tapes.

    Anyway, there are some things you only get here, and I just thought I'd let you in on another of these stories from the road. Having it happen after a win, and as we were heading home, made it tolerable. That, and Oden and Aldridge pulling into the facility in that last cab. If I would have had a video camera I would have rolled tape. You would have thought we set it up. Ah, life on the road.