Posted By: Jeramie McPeek
September 30, 2006 9:14 AM

With the exception of me starting the video encoder late and missing the first few seconds of host Tom Leander’s open to the show, it couldn’t have gone much better. We planned on an hour full of interviews and ended up with nearly 90 minutes, welcoming Amaré Stoudemire, Shaw Marion, Raja Bell, Coach D’Antoni, Robert Sarver and Marcus Banks, among others. If you haven’t watched it yet, be sure to check it out.

The second the show was over, I raced to gather up all the equipment and accessories that I would need to take with me to Italy, flew upstairs to change clothes in the third-floor supply closet (it was faster than going to the restroom… thankfully, no one had to fax anything at that moment) and dragged my luggage at full speed through the B-Lounge, back to the elevator and Level 0 to make sure I caught the team bus to the airport.

I made it and am now comfortably settled into Row 19, Seat D. Fasten your seatbelts, as we have a long, long – did I say long? – flight ahead of us.

“Attention passengers, we have located a blue blankie with the monogram M. Banks on it. If anyone is missing their blankie, please see a flight attendant.”

2:50 p.m.

I hate flying. Always have.

I love traveling with the Suns, though, and documenting their big trips like this one with behind-the-scenes photos and video for the site. We are so fortunate to have the access that we do. There aren’t too many coaches or GMs around the league that would let their web geeks wander up and down the plane with cameras. Of course, there aren’t many coaches or GMs around the league like Mike D’Antoni, one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you’ll meet in pro sports.

I’ve often said I didn’t think there would ever be another coach as friendly or as accommodating as the late-Cotton Fitzimmons. But Mike is definitely cut from that same cloth.

I’m not sure the players are thrilled to have me around, however. Most of the guys are pretty cool about it. Raja Bell and Shawn Marion, for example, will strike poses or clown around for the mini DV cam from time to time. But then there’s guys like Steve Nash, who I’ve known since the Suns drafted in ’96, that appears to feel uncomfortable with the cameras in these settings. Which is why I only shot Steve for a few seconds on the plane before take-off.

Which reminds me of Quentin Richardson, who we thought was annoyed by our cameras during the 2005 playoffs. He kept yelling “Turn the camera off” whenever we’d be filming on the plane or in the locker room.

At first we thought he was joking, but the more often he said it, the more we wondered if he wasn’t. After a couple weeks, I finally approached him and asked if he was serious. He just laughed. From then on, he was our go-to guy as far as our Suns.com. I miss having “Q” around.


3:37 p.m.

Okay, that caught me off guard.

We’re 45 minutes into our 15-hour flight now and Al McCoy is leaning on the back of my seat, sharing some stories about the Suns’ trip to Israel in 1983. How the team spent three weeks traveling all over, caravanning on a double-decker bus with a promoter who was a dead-ringer for Dom Deluise.

Captivated, as if listening to the “voice” on KTAR, I can’t help but wish I had my camera turned on to record his memories for our new history section of Suns.com. Until, that is, I am distracted by the nudity.

No, no one was stripping down on the team’s charter. But I was surprised to suddenly see… hmmm, how should I put this and maintain a family friendly blog?… how about a heated game of one-on-one on the overhead monitor just behind Al’s shoulder.

From the 15 seconds I saw, but tried not to watch, of Lucky Number Sleven, I’m guessing it’s Rated R. Good thing there are no kids on this flight.


Posted: 4:18 p.m.

Salmon is served.

If you read my blogs during the playoffs last spring, these next few paragraphs may sound familiar. As I think I said then, I don’t want to brag about the food on the team plane, but I have to share the experience, because it’s such a unique one compared to the peanuts I’m used to on commercial flights.

Upon boarding on the tarmac in Phoenix, we were greeted with trays of appetizers throughout the plane, including fresh fruit, veggies, jumbo shrimp, chicken fingers, chips and all sorts of liquid refreshment. The players were all over the bags of chips, but I dove into the fruit. I was starving, as I’d skipped lunch in all the Media Day madness.

Shortly after take-off came the salads – I passed – followed by the main course. On the menu this afternoon: New York strip steak, grilled salmon or grilled chicken, accompanied by asparagus and a warm roll, right out of the oven.

It was all delicious, too. I consider myself a connoisseur of fine salmon – whatever that means – and I’d say this ranked above average. Better than many restaurants in the Valley, at least.

I’m watching the flight attendants in the back of the plane closely to see what they’re going to bust out for dessert. Stay tuned.


5:00 p.m.

“Barkley sucks! Barkley sucks!”

Julie Fie, the Suns’ vice president of basketball communications and my boss back in my intern days of the early ‘90s, just stopped by and was telling me about the team’s trip to Germany for the McDonald’s Open in 1993.

While the staff and players were out for an evening at a famous German brewery, then-Suns center Joe Kleine hopped up on a table, raised his stein high and started the rousing chant when Sir Charles arrived at the party. I’m sure Chuck loved it.

5:40 p.m

Dark chocolate truffles for everyone.

6:04 p.m.

Sleven must be over now, as I see that Bruce Willis has been replaced on the monitors by Butterbean. Not that anyone’s really watching. Most of the Suns are watching their own DVD players or iPods, or playing poker.

6:41 p.m.

Hot fudge Sunday with whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top.

6:49 p.m.

Here come the Haagen Daas, Dove bars and popsicles. No thank you.

6:50 p.m.

Knocked over my ice cream dish on top of my video encoder. Thankfully, only a few drops spilled.

7:34 p.m.

“Hot towel?”

After the parade of desserts marched through the plane, a flight attendant next brought hot, damp towels, which she handed out with what looked like chop sticks. I would have preferred Chapstick myself, as my lips are burning. My poor wife, who is back home with Bronchitis, borrowed mine yesterday. I told her to keep it. (Hope you’re feeling better, honey).

Me: So what exactly are you supposed to do with the hot towels?

Flight attendant: “You can wipe your hands clean. Or some of the players will wipe their face or head down with it. I put lemon in it sometimes. It’s supposed to be refreshing.”

A hot lemony towel to wipe down my head, huh? Maybe next time.

7:42 p.m.

“The Northern Lights! Come see the Northern Lights!”

Laurel D’Antoni, who is as amazing and helpful a person as her husband, just came running down the aisle to be sure we all saw the natural phenomena, followed close behind by Kurt Thomas, Eric Piatkowski and Leandro Barbosa, who crowded into Row 19 to take a look for themselves. Kurt’s furrowed brow tells me he was not too impressed.

I could see the light blue glow out on the horizon, but I’m not sure I fully understand what I was looking at. Somebody tried to describe it as the one spot where there’s no day and no night. No clue what that’s supposed to mean.

7:59 p.m.

I just used the restroom. Not that you needed to know that, but I couldn’t help but look around the tight quarters to make sure there weren’t any of Samuel Jackson’s snakes coming down through the ceiling panels or up through the toilet. Bad movie, but for some reason I really enjoyed it.

9:48 p.m.

My laptop still works!

Upon arriving in Goose Bay, New Foundland, for a mid-trip refuel, Robert Sarver and the D’Antoni brothers asked if they could use our table to play some Gin Rummy while we waited. In the rush to pack up my gear (you didn’t expect me to tell them “no,” did you?), I knocked my HP laptop onto the floor with a loud thud.

An hour later and we’re taking off once again for the second leg of our journey. Only for this particular part of the trip, I’ve laid claim to a new seat next to swingman James Jones, who’s currently asleep under a blanket.

What a great guy! We talked quite a bit across the aisle on the first flight, probably more than we talked all of last season actually.

[Quick interruption: I HATE flying! We just took off and the whole plane shook, dipped, turned and bobbed back and forth for a full minute or two, which felt like 20. I’m sure most of the regulars in the Suns’ traveling party didn’t even notice, but that’s one of the roughest take-offs I’ve ever experienced personally. Must be all the wind coming in off of the Labrador Sea.]

Back to our regularly scheduled blog… After spending two or three hours working on a strategic plan for his new foundation, Jones shared some of his plans with me. Teaming up fellow NBAers Keyon Dooling and Udonis Haslem, he is looking to launch a number of education and career growth programs for adults in his hometown of Miami. He also talked about his desire to help kids and teens with diabetes and cancer in Phoenix.

11:58 p.m.

I’ve finished cropping all my photos, as well Andy Bernstein’s photos, for a “Suns Travel” gallery on the web site. Andy is considered the NBA’s best photographer and just an all-around good guy. He’s traveling with us and has offered to share all his photos for Suns.com, which relieves me to focus on video.

Speaking of which, I still need to edit the footage I shot on the first half of the flight. But I’m fading fast. I think I’m going to try and catch a couple hours of sleep before we land. We’re scheduled to arrive in Treviso, around 3 a.m. Phx time, Noon Italy time. Somehow I think my body clock is going to be off for a few days.

More tomorrow.

12:16 a.m.

Told you’d I’d have more “tomorrow.” I just realized that the sun is coming up outside the plane. So strange. It’s midnight back home, but its dawn over the Atlantic Ocean. I think it’s officially time to switch my watch (and my blog posts) to Italy time.

12:56 p.m. (Italy time)

Well, I got about an hour of sleep. Maybe. For some reason my seat won’t recline, so I had a heck of a time finding a comfortable position. I thought about crawling into a ball on the floor, but the flight attendants had taken all the good spots. You didn’t think they worked 15 hours straight, did you?

I woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon, though, as breakfast was served. I chose the French toast myself, with a plate of fruit and some orange juice.

We passed over the Swiss Alps about 20 minutes ago, which I tried to capture on video, but I’m not sure I did. And we’re now making our descent into Treviso. Believe it or not, that went a lot faster than I expected it to.

I’m signing off, so I can power up the camera and film the guys one last time this flight, as they deboard the plane.

Welcome to Italy!

Comments

Willie H. Ware IV - Tacoma, WA
Hey Jeramie,

Just want to let you know I certainly envy your job first of all, with all the video editing, photography, blogging, and just hangin' out with the guys... and of course the work you do all the rest of the time, but it sounds like a great job. I appreciate your work, it allows me to get "inside of what is going on" with the Suns. No other team has that... not that I care anyway.. Suns are and have been my team since 1990. I only hope to land a job working for them some day. I'd move back to Phoenix for that. Have fun in Italy, and keep me updated!

J. Pascual - Manila, Philippines
Awesome. Poker? Dare I ask who won? *laugh*

You have just about the coolest job ever. Man.

This is the year of the Sun, dude. I'm bloody excited. Have fun, y'all!

Jeramie - Treviso
Hey Willie and J. Pascual... thanks for the comments. I was wondering if anyone would share any feedback, or even read my entries. My name doesn't quite pull the weight of a Marks or Banks, you know... I really appreciate your kind words, though, and have to agree. I do have the coolest job in the world. Well, next to my man Adam Beechen, who I'll be writing about very soon. Or a script writer for WWE! Now that would be a blast!!! But I do love what I do and hope it shows through the site. I'm very blessed, and thankful to the Suns for all the opportunities they've given me. Like this trip to Italy!

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