Troy Murphy's latest blog entry at Pacers.com requires a little extra attention. Murph literally takes us inside the team plane for a little behind the scenes description of a team flight. Here's a little taste:
I go to look out the window and there is a foot draped over my seat by the person behind me. I turn the other way and notice another foot about 3 inches from my ear. This is not a normal foot, mind you, it's about the size of a roll of paper towels. I turn around and see Roy with his feet on my chair and one of those neck pillows that is the shape of an inflated horseshoe around his neck. On his head is a Phillies cap that is 2 seconds away from falling off.
He's sitting next to Travis, which I find very interesting. You have to watch Travis because he can be very tricky on flights. Roy has an expensive bag he uses as a carry-on and on our last flight from Boston, Travis thought it would be a good idea to hide a meatball in it.
Now, this was not a meatball in tin foil or anything but a meatball with pasta sauce and parmesan cheese on it. Roy was not amused, to say the least. He looked like he was going to stuff Trav in an overhead compartment for the flight.
What impressed me about the blog entry was the actual writing which was no surprise for the Notre Dame educated power forward. Still, he has a nice casual writing style. You can tell he's not laboring over words and instead it just flows out of him.
So then at the Fieldhouse last night, I found out Murph DID labor over the words. When I mentioned to Pacers.com maestro, Conrad Brunner, that Murph could always fall back on blogging when his playing days are over, I was informed that Murph pounded out the nearly thousand-word entry on his Blackberry with no additional editing.
Wha? My thumbs immediately began throbbing with sympathy pains.
After the game, Murph confirmed the story considering it no big deal since the flight was so long. He also seemed genuinely excited to have his writing receive a favorable review, so hopefully he'll churn out a few more posts before the season ends. But, please Murph, grab a laptop. I don't want to hear about your double-double streak (currently 11) ending because you have to leave the game with severe thumb cramps.