Obviously that’s not the San Antonio Spurs to the right. But that’s probably the only charter service we’d put up with these days. In fact, remember that scene from “Major League”, when the Cleveland Indians prance out onto the tarmac of the airport to find their charter plane is a 1970’s behemoth piece of rusty propellers and stereotypical Native American imagery? That’s what we imagine the San Antonio Spurs experience everyday since their charter service, Champion Air, is officially going out of business.

San Antonio uses the charter company Champion Air, which has announced it is ceasing all operations at the end of May.

Good thing they’ll be eliminated by the Lakers towards the end of May so they won’t have to worry about sleeping on the plane, or anything. Um, too late.

The team could not find hotel rooms in the city, so the players had to sleep on the plane, team spokesman Cliff Puchalski said. “We slept on the plane — as much as you can sleep,” Puchalski said. “We tried to keep some normal semblance of order.”

So, a professional, three-time, defending world champion basketball team had to sleep on a plane after they progressed to the Western Conference Finals? Ha. Actually, it might have been interesting if Eva Longoria was on board. Damn you, Tony Parker.

Spurs slept aboard grounded plane in New Orleans [ESPN]
Image [tifdb]