Jeff Teague stood near the loading dock at The Palace of Auburn Hills in 2016 with a Little Caesars pizza box tucked sideways under his left arm with his phone pressed to his right ear.
There are two buses for Hawks personnel to either get to the airport or the hotel in the city they’re playing in. The first bus leaves roughly 30 minutes after the head coach’s locker room speech. The second bus leaves after the final player in the training room finishes treatment.
Zac Walsh, the Hawks’ travel and equipment manager, is always the final person to leave the locker room. One of his many tasks on game day is to make sure all of the players get on the buses.
Teague, who was in the family area with his sister, wasn’t in the locker room or on the second bus, so Walsh thought it was all clear for the that bus to depart the arena. So, there was Teague’s picture on social media with a box of pizza tucked under his arm as his team left...