Birds might like to fly. Pilots might like to fly.
Us?
Not so much, but then, we are crammed into an aluminum tube that invariably is populated by screaming babies and people for whom the term moderation does not apply when it comes to the subject of body fragrance application.
You might think basketball players like to fly. They mainly have chartered flights for the team and support personnel.
No babies, no perfume overdoses. We hope they get plenty of legroom, as we never do and we are not lanky basketball players.
Of late, however, it seems that basketball players have a low opinion of air travel.
A case, perhaps, of familiarity breeding contempt?
There was a recent incident involving an NBA player who suffered an anxiety attack from ingesting a marijuana-infused candy on a team flight. He was high as a kite while high in the sky.
Now, news reaches us that New Zealand Breakers’ player Tom Vodanovich mixed sleeping pills with alcohol on a flight.
Sleeping pills and alcohol are the method of choice for some of those with a suicidal mindset, but we doubt that Vodanovich falls into that category, at least, that would be our hope.
The Breakers, to put it mildly, have been navigating choppy waters.
They have won just two games in the 2019 – 2020 NBL competition.
Their star import, Glen Rice Junior, a former player in the NBA, was suspended indefinitely pending the outcome of an alleged assault with intent to injure.
On balance, we would be less harsh toward Vodanovich, who said that he had no recollection of the flight from Perth to New Zealand.
It is often tempting to declare these incidents as the result of rich athletes taking advantage of their elevated status, but the prevalence of these behavioural incidents expose the raw underbelly of professional athletes, where players have difficult times trying to be everywhere at once and succumb to the pressures of a lifestyle that is far from healthy or ideal.