Nightmare travel for Lynx opponent Indiana underscores WNBA problem

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Cooler, where you can always go home. Let's get to it:

*It's the kind of nightmare travel story that a friend or colleague might tell you. But this one happened to a professional team at the highest level of its sport.

The Indiana Fever of the WNBA had a game Sunday in Seattle, and the team was supposed to fly back to Indianapolis afterward on Sunday night. They arrived at the Seattle airport around 7:45 p.m. for a 10:30 p.m. flight.

But from there, per the frustrating but often hilarious account on Twitter from Fever forward Natalie Achonwa, Indiana had a postponed flight … then a route through Atlanta on a new plane … then an overbooked connecting flight … then an 8-hour bus ride to Indianapolis that included a stop for mechanical troubles … before finally getting back home about 24 hours after they started on Monday evening. Indiana has a home game with the Lynx on Tuesday, and that's hardly the best way to prepare.

It could have been worse: Las Vegas had to forfeit a game last season because of travel problems.

Both examples are reminders of a fundamental difference between the WNBA and the NBA (and other top men's leagues, for that matter): WNBA players take commercial flights while NBA players take private charters. The WNBA prohibits teams from using charters in an attempt to keep a level playing field between those teams who can afford them and those who can't (which is ridiculous to begin with).

It's an interesting disparity. On one hand, NBA players didn't start flying charter until more than three decades into that league's existence. The WNBA is barely two decades old, so there is an argument to be made these things take time.

But these are also the very best of the best women's basketball players in the world. With everything we know about the roles rest and recovery play in athletic performance, charter flights seem like a no-brainer. Flying commercial also has a symbolic element as one more disparity between pro women's players and their male counterparts — a fight that only figures to intensify as the WNBA heads toward a new collective bargaining agreement.

*Derrick Rose's 50-point game for the Timberwolves on Halloween was named the NBA's Moment of the Year at the league's annual awards show on Monday. *Awesome sports photo alert. #fanatic