This weekend's delays were the worst for the Atlanta Hawks beginning Friday night with bad weather including freezing rain.  After giving up on the flight at 6 a.m. on Saturday, the team tried to nap at a downtown Atlanta hotel for a few hours.  

At mid-afternoon Saturday, the Hawks headed back to the airport, having lined up a different charter for the one-hour flight. After waiting through another tedious de-icing, the Hawks finally took off.

The travel complications, however, were not over. The team couldn't find lodging in Memphis and had to settle for a hotel about 30 minutes out of town. Then the players found the hotel dining room was closed, so the search for a late dinner ended at a nearby pancake restaurant.

The Hawks' return flight to a foggy Atlanta landed about 12:30 p.m., according to Triche, who said players were given a day off before a practice Monday morning for a home game that night against Orlando.

It marked the third straight week Atlanta has encountered travel problems. The Hawks were stuck en route to Boston for a Jan. 14 game with the Celtics because of fog, and in Chicago after a Jan. 21 game when the flight crew did not have enough members.