Author's Note:Thank god for Japanese mythology when you want to anthropomorphise something for an inanimate object team.
It's a sad fact of life, but people don't really believe in monsters anymore. The idea that if something gets used long enough, well enough, it starts gaining a life of its own is the kind of thing that gets you laughed out of town in these 'modern times'. So if you think of it that way, it's not really its fault for what happened; they're the ones making wishes on things they don't believe in, after all. The fact that they use up the balls so quickly, so that you barely get a chance to bounce on the court before you're already marked as useless and retired from use, has nothing to do with it, of course. Its not bitter. Not at all.
Strictly speaking, tsukumogami don't grant wishes. But then, strictly speaking, you don't become a tsukumogami and gain life of your own until you've been around for a hundred years. Considering the fact that the game itself has barely been around that long, there's no one who'd believe that this particular ball is a hundred years old. But it's not like it matters. It lives whether you believe or not. Perhaps it needs to thank them for that. That their love for it, for basketball, was so strong. That they loved it enough for a hundred years.
So if you look at it that way, it was only right that it granted their wishes. That kind of love deserves response. And what response is better than giving them what they want? So perhaps it stops being what they want after a while. But that's not its problem.
If you think about it, this kind of coincidence reaches the point where you can't really call it a coincidence anymore. Talent that comes once in every ten years? No. it's talent that comes once in a lifetime, and love that comes once and never again. And to have all five of these miracles in the same year, in the same school. There is something inevitable about it, and at the same time something impossible. So can anyone blame it, then, for fanning the flames? Who wouldn't want to see that flower bloom? To see all those flowers bloom?
Of course, the old adage is 'you should be careful what you wish for' for a reason. It won't try to pretend otherwise. Its actions did kind of break them a little. Some of them maybe more than a little.
But they're young. They'll get over it. They love basketball, after all. It's what they wished for; they have no one to blame but themselves.
I want to play basketball. I want to always play basketball. I want to play basketball with you. I want to play basketball better than anyone else. I want to win. I don't want to lose.
Do you? Do you really?
Tsukumogami are a type of Japanese monster that is originally a harmless everyday item that gains life after being used for a hundred years. They are usually only on the level of harmless pranks. It's up to you whether you think this is a tsukumogami or not. Monsters lie, sometimes.