The closure of the Bay Bridge forced the Houston Rockets to take an unconventional route to the team’s game in Oakland on Wednesday against the Golden State Warriors.
The Rockets took a ferry across the San Francisco Bay, like many Bay Area commuters who had to make last-minute travel arrangements on Wednesday.
Houston Rockets spokesman Nelson Luis said that the team learned of the Bay Bridge closure during its game the night before in Portland.
The team was originally scheduled to fly into Oakland and drive over the Bay Bridge to its hotel in San Francisco. However, during the Portland game, team officials had to change their flight to go into San Francisco International Airport, Luis said.
When the Rockets were headed to the game, they had the choice of either taking a roughly two-hour trip down the Peninsula and across the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, or to take the Alameda/Oakland Ferry across the Bay.
The team chose the boat, which made a stop in Alameda before dropping them, along with hundreds of other passengers, off at Jack London Square.
“It actually went pretty smooth,” Luis said. “Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and everyone on the ferry was very nice to us.”
He said the trip “didn’t turn into an autograph session” but that there were a handful of people who knew they were the basketball team from Houston.
The unexpected trip didn’t affect the Rockets too much, as they were able to defeat the Warriors 108-107.
After the game, the team didn’t take a return trip on the ferry back to their hotel in San Francisco, instead taking a bus on the long route over the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.
After spending the night in San Francisco, the team flew back to Houston with an interesting story to tell.
“None of our players had ever taken a boat to a game, that’s for sure,” Luis said.
