http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-rocketsferry102809&prov=yhoo&type=lgns By Marc J. Spears, Yahoo! Sports 1 hour, 23 minutes ago OAKLAND, Calif. – The Houston Rockets have one goal during their ride to Wednesday night’s game against the Golden State Warriors: Don’t get seasick. A bridge closure has forced the Rockets to find alternate transportation from their hotel in San Francisco to the Warriors’ arena in Oakland or risk being late. They settled on taking a passenger ferry across the San Francisco Bay. “Trevor Ariza said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Rockets trainer Keith Jones said. “Tracy McGrady was laughing. It will be a new experience, but they will enjoy it.” Teams staying in San Francisco typically need 30-45 minutes to make the trip to Oakland by charter bus, but the Bay Bridge has been closed for emergency repairs. The closure has caused major traffic issues because it connects 280,000 motorists daily across the bay. Motorists are taking alternate routes like the ferry, train and BART to get to their destinations. It’s uncertain when the bridge will reopen. More From Marc J. SpearsRondo, Celtics go back to bargaining table Oct 28, 2009 Celtics' Davis expects to be sidelined 6-8 weeks Oct 27, 2009 Jones first learned of the Bay Bridge closure during the Rockets’ season-opening loss at Portland on Tuesday night. During halftime, he had the Rockets’ late-night charter flight rerouted to San Francisco instead of Oakland so the team could be closer to its hotel. Jones said it would have been too hard to change to an Oakland-area hotel instead because of accommodation issues. After some Rockets personnel needed two hours by bus to get from San Francisco to the arena Wednesday morning, Jones began looking for different transportation. He believes an afternoon bus ride could take the Rockets more than three hours. Jones said San Francisco Ferry officials guaranteed the Rockets preferred seating on two afternoon ferries that take about 35 minutes and make a stop in Alameda before getting to Oakland. The price is general admission at $6.50 per person. Food, beverages and a beautiful upstairs deck view are also available during the ride. After the game, Jones said the Rockets would take a bus back to Oakland with hopes that it won’t be more than a one-hour ride late at night. “I have never seen anything like this bridge snafu,” Jones said. “But you’d rather have a 35-minute ride than a three-hour ride. Most of the guys want to take a nap in the afternoon. It allows everyone to be able to stay in their routine.” After the ferry ride across the bay, a bus will take the Rockets on a short ride to Oracle Arena for the game. The ferries will be filled with local business people as well as Warriors fans making the afternoon commute home. “It will be interesting for everyone to see us get on there,” Jones said. “I wish we had Yao [Ming] playing, but I’m glad he is not here this time.”
They should have just taken the BART. There are many stations in SF, one likely reasonably close to their hotel, and there is a station right at the Oracle Arena.
Have you ever been on BART between Oakland and San Francisco? Granted I rode it at night, but the stations were crawling with vagrants.
never rode the BART to Oakland (only Berkeley), but if a group of professional basketball players were forced to ride the public transit, I don't think they need to worry about getting jumped by some homeless people. in fact, I'm willing to bet that plenty of NBA ballers had experience growing up in the presence of "vagrants"
Its not that bad. Anyway I think the Giants and A's have ridden a few times for their Bay Bridge series.
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