Before the confrontation with the Valančiūnas team, Jazz lived a nightmare in heaven: we thought it was the end

At that time, after the victorious Euroleague match, Žalgiris survived many fears in the air over the Spanish capital Madrid, when a damaged Kaunas plane had to land dramatically at military airports.

Although the basketball players themselves were silent about the incident, the wives of some players spoke openly about the incident.

This time, not even the players themselves decided to remain silent. After a tough victory over the Memphis Grizzlies (111: 107), Jazz basketball players unanimously affirmed that they had experienced one of the worst moments of their lives in heaven.

As soon as it took off for Memphis, the plane flying the Jazz delegation collided with a flock of birds and was forced to land quickly in an emergency: one of the plane’s engines caught fire.

“A good 10-15 minutes were very scary. I think the same question went through everyone’s mind on the plane: Will we fly somewhere else? It was very serious. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know some guys on the plane have already written messages to their families. Because of all the anger, you know. That’s the situation, “Jazz defender Mike Conley did not hide.

The Utah Jazz plane had to be diverted after colliding with some birds during takeoff. Everybody is fine. 😲

(📸: @brian_schnee) pic.twitter.com/U4ZPuwd5Rj
– theScore (@theScore) March 30, 2021

For some, those experiences were too much. For example, the most prominent jazz star, Donovan Mitchell, generally refused to fly to Memphis on a subsequent flight from the Salt Lake City airport a few hours after the incident.

It was previously known that the 24-year-old basketball player was afraid of flying, and this fact caused great frustration in the American. It is not clear if Mitchell will soon be on board to board the plane and travel with the team to the next game; the Jazz will play in Dallas next Monday.

“I don’t know if such an experience can be quickly erased from memory. Everyone survived the situation in their own way, but it affected everyone, albeit differently. We have to admit that we went through terrible times and realized how fragile our lives are, ”said Jazz coach Quin Snyder.

Oh!

Look at the damage on the plane the Jazz was carrying. So happy to have landed safely! pic.twitter.com/fpjiSBY1nT
– Morgan Wolfe (@MorganWolfeKSL) March 30, 2021

According to Conley, the people on Delta’s private flight felt “something like an explosion.”

“The plane started to jump, it leaned to the left and people saw smoke from the windows. In addition, the flight altitude began to decrease rapidly, the 33-year-old said. – It took the pilots about 10 minutes to stabilize the situation, find out what happened, perform quick inspection procedures. Only then were we informed of what was going on. Immediately after the incident, we were in ignorance, we only realized that something really happened to the plane. “

“There was a feeling of helplessness. If it was open, the plane appeared to have split in midair. We are very grateful to the drivers who demonstrated professionalism and handled the situation, “said Mr. Conley.

Another Jazz player, 28-year-old defender Jordan Clarkson, spoke no less dramatically.

“Now we are happy to have the opportunity to talk about this experience, which ended happily. I can certainly admit that the first moment after the incident I thought: Man, after all, it can all end for us here and now. We will have to live with it, we must stay strong, we must support each other. The fact that it was an extremely dramatic and tense situation, during which the issue of life or death was addressed, ”said the basketball player.

Specialists are currently conducting additional investigation into the incident.

We remind you that even after such an unpleasant experience and without their brightest star D. Mitchell, the Jazz basketball players managed to beat the Grizzlies team for the third time in the last week.