DALLAS — The winter weather in Dallas has caused travel problems for not only the residents of North Texas and those passing through, but also for multiple NBA teams.
The Dallas Mavericks are scheduled to play the New Orleans Pelicans at the American Airlines Center in Dallas at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Due to weather issues impacting the Dallas area, the New Orleans Pelicans didn't land in Dallas until around 12:40 p.m. Thursday, according to ESPN's Andrew Lopez.
Multiple Pelicans players were tweeting about the situation, including guard Jose Alvarado who said, "AAU Vibes," referencing what it was like to travel when playing basketball as a teenager.
Pelicans big man Larry Nance Jr. commented on a tweet from one of his teammates, saying that the buses weren't there to pick the team up when they landed.
As of 6 p.m. Thursday, the game is still scheduled to take place on time.
Earlier in the week, NBA correspondent Mark Stein reported the Pelicans, who just lost to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday in Denver, were practicing in Denver again on Wednesday because they weren't able to fly into Dallas.
Stein reported that another option given to the Pelicans was to fly into Oklahoma City and then bus to Dallas from there in order to play Thursday's game. That ended up not happening.
The Detroit Pistons also faced some weather issues connected to North Texas.
The Pistons played the Mavs on Monday, with the team's next game scheduled to be against the Washington Wizards in Detroit on Wednesday, Feb. 1, but the team wasn't able to fly out of Dallas.
As of Wednesday, both Dallas-Fort Worth International and Love Field had experienced thousands of flight cancellations in the past few days. There were more than 1,000 on Tuesday and more than 1,500 on Wednesday.
The NBA announced Wednesday afternoon the Pistons-Wizards game would be postponed to a later date due to the team being unable to fly back to Detroit.
"The date for the rescheduled game will be announced at a later time," the NBA said in a press release.
Pistons Head Coach Dwane Casey said he's optimistic the team can get back to Michigan by then.
The group tried to fly out Tuesday, but a spokesperson said they waited roughly six hours on the plane to take off because a crew had timed out.
Casey has lived in Dallas, as he was with the Mavericks organization back when they won the NBA Championship in 2011. So he knows firsthand how Texas shuts down when it's facing this kind of weather, but admits a place like Michigan likely would have been more prepared for all this ice.
"I've had those days and nights that you get here once or twice a winter," Casey said. "In Detroit, the night before something like this you see the trucks all over the city just pounding the roads and treating them. It's no disrespect to Dallas, you just don't get this type of weather here."