03-29-2009, 04:34 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Pacers hope to help team heal wounds from plane crash
Quote:
As he sat, buckled in tight, awaiting the departure of his flight, Marat Lokenov tried to avoid the memories. Then the plane rolled down the runway and thrust into the sky.
"As it left the ground," Lokenov said, "I felt a lot of fear."
For the 21-year-old Lokenov, his five basketball teammates and the coach who survived a fiery plane crash in their native country of Kyrgyzstan last August, it was the first flight since. It brought them from their country to the U.S, where the Pacers, in conjunction with the NBA, NCAA and State Department, are working to help their team recover.
The full team, including the seven survivors, watched the Pacers practice Friday afternoon and met with team members afterward, posing for photos and shaking hands. They will be in Conseco Fieldhouse Sunday night when the Pacers face the Washington Wizards.
The Pacers became intimately involved with the group from Kyrgyzstan, a small, mountainous country bordered by Kazakhstan to the north and China to the east, through Sam Perkins. The team's Director of Player Development, working with the NBA's Basketball Without Borders program, spent a week prior to the crash conducting clinics in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
When the team's plane bound for Tehran, Iran, crashed on Aug. 24, 2008, in fact, initial reports identified Perkins among the victims. He and Louisville women's assistant coach Becky Bonner were instead bound for another flight headed back to the U.S.
"I was probably one of the last to see them before they took off," said Perkins. "To see them again after what they went through makes me both happy and sad but I’m glad we have this opportunity to do something for them. It’s a bittersweet moment, but really good to see them again."
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http://my.nba.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5700034838
Interesting story.
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Pacers hope to help team heal wounds from plane crash
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