Trailblazers rattled by snake in locker room

This was before they got thrashed 114-97 to the San Antonio Spurs.

The Portland Trailblazers players did not have a good day out on or off the basketball court. Ashley Landis / EPA
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas // Were the Portland Trailblazers rattled, literally, before their 114-97 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semi-finals of the NBA play-offs on Thursday?

A snake – the Trailblazers think it was a rattlesnake – turned up in the locker of their reserve forward Thomas Robinson before the game, ESPN reported.

Robinson said he had only seen snakes on the Discovery Channel until now.

“I was scared,” he said. “I ain’t gonna lie, I was scared.”

He said he screamed and lept “about five feet high and 20 feet back”.

Reserve guard Will Barton, Robinson’s neighbour in the locker room, said he himself kept calm while hopping up on a chair.

There was all kinds of commotion until team trainers caught the creature.

A Spurs official said the snake was determined to be non-poisonous before being safely released back into the wild, ESPN said.

The snake was black and white, the Spurs’ colours, Robinson noted.

The report said that Spurs shooting guard Danny Green collects snakes.

“That’s the No 1 suspect right there,” Barton said with a laugh.

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