Spurs, Pacers having a little extra fun with the Paris traffic

PARIS (AP) — They’ve seen the Eiffel Tower. They’ve had great food. They’ve enjoyed some of the best that Paris has to offer.

And they’ve … been driven down the wrong side of busy roads?

Welcome to Paris, Spurs and Pacers. It’s the city of lights. The city of love. And the city of hellacious traffic.

Here’s the gist: Paris is not a city where it’s easy to drive around. And with this being Fashion Week, the streets are even more jammed than usual. Which is why Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, from his front seat on the team bus to the arena Thursday, may have been hanging on for dear life.

“We are weaving in and out of stuff. We’re all of a sudden going down the other side of the street,” Carlisle said. “It is the most phenomenal experience I’ve ever had.”

The drivers aren’t going rogue on these bus rides. The teams are getting helped around the city by police escorts. Lights are flashing, sirens are wailing and let’s just say there isn’t a lot of defensive driving going on.

“Action-packed would be a term,” acting Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “They are also stubborn in a good way. They’re going to get the job done, for sure. So, we appreciate them and it has, yeah, led to some laughs and maybe grabbing the seat a couple times. But good stuff. They got us here safe and sound, so we appreciate them very much.”

Carlisle was so moved by it all that he — unprompted — opened his pregame news conference before the Indiana-San Antonio game Thursday by thanking the Paris police for their work, as scary as it might be at times along the way.

“These Volvo busses, I mean, these things are like out of one of those video games, Call of Duty or something like that,” Carlisle said. “These things are unbelievable the way they handle. And the drivers, they’re just acting like it’s just another walk in the park.”

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