LaVine breaks DeRozan's All-Star news on Bulls' plane originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Zach LaVine's "Flight 8" nickname took on a whole new meaning Thursday night.
The Chicago Bulls used their social media account to show how LaVine took over the team's charter flight to San Antonio to announce over the intercom that DeMar DeRozan earned an All-Star starting selection.
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"It was crazy, Zach getting up on the plane," DeRozan said from San Antonio. "I don’t even know how he figured out how to do it. But his announcement was definitely funny. Flight 8, whatever he said. It was cool. He woke up a lot of people on the plane, made him turn on the light and everything. So that was the funny part about it and just getting congratulations from my teammate was dope."
While making sure to credit his fellow Eastern Conference starting backcourt mate in Trae Young, DeRozan also emphasized how much LaVine deserved the berth. LaVine, who is a near-lock to be named an All-Star reserve by coaches' vote next week, actually drew more player votes than Young. But those only comprise 25 percent of the overall voting, and Young prevailed in fan and media voting.
"Nothing against Trae, Trae is definitely All-Star. I felt Zach should’ve been in there as well. You see it from the players’ reaction," DeRozan said, citing the player vote. "Nothing against Trae at all. But I wish he would’ve got in there. I think that would’ve been dope to have the both of us in there as starters. No question he’ll be in there next week. But as far as starters, that would’ve been something cool. But even if we were starters, there’s a chance we probably wouldn’t even have been on the same team. But that would’ve been dope to out there with him starting."
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