- The
Las Vegas Aces endured a brutal trip to Connecticut ahead of their matchup against the Sun. - They flew to New Jersey, waited hours for bags, hit traffic, and arrived after restaurants closed.
- The team ended up eating at Walmart, where coach
Bill Laimbeer joked he was "looking for the booze."
The Las Vegas Aces spent the better part of a day traveling across the country for a road game in Connecticut.
And by the time they overcame flight delays, missing luggage, and traffic to arrive at their final destination, the No. 1 Aces had no choice but to grab food from Walmart as all the local restaurants had already closed.
A'ja Wilson, the Las Vegas superstar who is the reigning
Wilson's mom was a fan of Laimbeer's antics, and the coach's daughter was sympathetic to her dad's sentiments.
-Keri (@klaimbeer_) August 22, 2021
The Aces had woken up in the early hours of the morning that day to board their flight to Newark, New Jersey, according to reporting from the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Sam Gordon. They arrived at 2:30 p.m. local time, but instead of hitting the road for their three-hour drive to the Sun's arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, the Las Vegas team had to spend an extra few hours waiting at the airport for everyone's luggage at baggage claim. And once they finally embarked on their trip up I-95, the Aces got caught in extra traffic - perhaps because of congestion ahead of Tropical Storm Henri's landfall in New England.
The less-than-straightforward journey adds to the oft-made case that WNBA teams should charter planes, particularly for big cross-country trips such as Las Vegas' this week. Had they taken their own jet directly to an airport in Connecticut, surely the Aces wouldn't have found themselves eating dinner at Walmart.
Perhaps that explains why the Las Vegas star Kelsey Plum was heard repeatedly saying "Hey, Cathy" in an apparent plea to the WNBA's commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, during Wilson's Instagram stories.
"Hey, A'ja," Plum said early in the clip. "Tell Instagram we could've been in Europe by now!"
Other teams have faced similar
-Joe Tsai (@joetsai1999) July 10, 2021
Perhaps the newly minted Aces owner
Check out a recording of Wilson's Instagram story documenting Las Vegas' Saturday-night adventure below:
-wubblenews (@NewsWubble) August 22, 2021