What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled? Across the city? The state? The country? Have you ever flown so far that time zones start to mock you?
I have. I’m an Army guy. Three years active duty, seven in
the Arizona National Guard. That time came with its fair share of airborne adventures, like a year stationed in South Korea and a few weeks running drills in Hohenfels, Germany. I’ve stared at flight maps that never seem to move, wedged into a middle seat somewhere over the Pacific, with a stranger’s head slowly surrendering to my shoulder.
And now, the Phoenix Suns get to experience their own version of that purgatory-in-the-sky. They’re headed to China for a pair of games against the Brooklyn Nets. Friday morning and Sunday morning here, but a world away in every other sense. The jet lag, the rhythm shift, the sensory overload; it’s a long-haul flight in more ways than one.
Macao, China sits on the eastern edge of the country, pressed against the South China Sea, a short hop across the Gangzhu’ao Bridge from Hong Kong. And to get there from Phoenix? Try a 17-hour straight shot through the sky.
That’s the kind of trip that tests your sense of time, your patience, and maybe your sanity. Seventeen hours of recycled air and restless legs before you even step onto the tarmac. Jet lag isn’t a possibility. It’s a guarantee. Macao runs fifteen hours ahead of Arizona, which means when you’re sipping your first cup of coffee, they’re already halfway through tomorrow.
Anyone who’s flown from the U.S. to Asia knows what that kind of time warp does to your body. Your mind says “morning,” your stomach says “midnight,” and your soul starts bargaining with your circadian rhythm for mercy.
“We’re going to lose a couple of days going there, coming back, but we’re not going to make an excuse,” head coach Jordan Ott told The Arizona Republic. “We’re going to try to maximize the time we have on the flight. We’ll obviously try to maximize some practice time, but I don’t see it as a negative. We’ll turn it into a way we’re together more, whether it’s team bonding or something on the court.”
The Phoenix Suns are doing everything short of rewiring their internal clocks to make the jump across the planet as painless as possible. The team’s flight plan reads more like a wellness retreat than a red-eye. They’ll be deploying carefully timed snacks and meals calibrated for energy, recovery, and circadian rhythm realignment.
The idea is simple: keep everyone — from Devin Booker to the Suns Gorilla — feeling as human as possible when they step off that plane. That means staying awake in stretches on the 17-hour flight, fighting the primal urge to crash, all in the name of tricking their bodies into syncing with Macao time.
This trip isn’t just a long haul; it’s a statement. The NBA’s global push continues, with these matchups marking the 49th and 50th games played in China since 1979 and the first since 2019. The league’s traveling circus is rolling into Macao, bright lights and all, ready to show the world what basketball looks like halfway across the globe.
The only question is how much the journey will linger in their legs once the ball tips. We’ll find out soon enough. Well, if you’re up early enough to catch it. Tip-off is set for 5 a.m. Friday. Bring coffee.
