Thursday, July 27, 2006
Today is the big day its 8:00 in the morning and Zack is just now waking up. He was shocked to not hear the train come by this morning. He brushed his teeth had some orange juice and went downstairs. There was no practice today because of the game tonight which has been moved to 6:00 pm. He went out to explore more of the city; however he is still not in a very good mood. He thinks he will ruin the game tonight and embarrass himself and the team. He went to visit a large library to find a book about Japanese basketball, he did not find anything just as he expected. He did take some pictures of the library because he felt it had an elegant view that can be remembered. It was now 12:00 noon, now Zack was hungry, as he was about to walk into a steak shop he got a call on his cell phone from Ayane. "Dammit what does she want?" He answered the phone in an angry tone.
"Hello?" Zack asked. "How come every time I talk to you, you're in a bad mood?" Ayane asked "I'm stressed with basketball it's not an easy sport you know besides why do you care in the DOA tournaments you hated me." Zack said. "Maybe I hated the way you acted but some things you have to let go. I think you need someone to talk to meet me at Fuji Steakhouse for lunch" Ayane said Zack didn't respond instead he hung up the phone. "Oh what an asshole," she said to herself. Zack did not want to go he didn't anything to do with anyone who fought in the 4th DOA Tournament. He was going to be a gentlemen and show up anyway. When he showed up Ayane did not want to even look at him. Zack smiled for the first time in a while, and walked to her table. Ayane was very focused in newspaper but really she was pretending to read just to be able to ignore Zack. "Hello Ayane" he said, she continued to ignore him. "well isn't that nice I actually choose to show up and you ignore me." Zack wanted to laugh, Ayane wanted to scream about him finding his rudeness funny. "I was ignoring you because you are rude, you hung up on me when I was about to say something. You also haven't been very nice to me since I first met you again at the restaurant." Ayane said. "Well you haven't been very nice to me in all the Tournaments I have been in, I even heard once that you said you wanted me dead." Zack explained Ayane was shocked and had a bold look on her face. "who in the hell told you that? I have never said such a harsh thing about you." Ayane said. She really couldn't believe this she has never said anything like that. "some guy named Ryu told me at the last tournament that's why I won't be attending the next tournament" Zack Explained "You quit fighting but you are a good fighter I would love to see you come back" Ayane said. "Well its not gonna happen because after the tournament I attended school at the University of Texas in Austin Texas. I play basketball there now." Zack explained
Ayane thought for a moment he's not doing to well in basketball neither. Then she had an idea. "I want you to promise me something, to me you aren't that good at basketball I personally think you suck at it." Ayane said Zack did not take that well he was beginning to get angry. "No hold on before you say anything listen to me, If your team is beaten out in this world series then you have to fight in the 5th DOA Tournament, but if your team wins then you can forget about everyone you met at the DOA Tournament and move on with basketball." Ayane explained her bet. "That means if we win you will quit bothering me forever?" Zack asked Ayane nodded her head yes. That's when Zack got happy and said it's a deal. They continued to talk and ate some lunch together. Its now 4:00 Zack caught a Taxi and went to the Japan Arena where they were holding the Tournament he was early but that wasn't a bad thing because everyone else was too. When he arrived at the Arena he noticed the entire Japanese team running laps around the arena including the parking lot. He gave them a strange look and just walked into the arena to go to the locker room. When he got to the locker room he put on some headphones and listened to his favorite rappers Bone Thugs N Harmony. The other players where showing respect to him as well except Mike who didn't even say hi to him. His best friend on this team just Shaun O'Davis just recovered from his knee surgery. He just arrived in Japan a hour ago and he was happy to see Zack. Before the game Shaun gave Zack some pointers on developing his Jump Shot since they are both play guard position on the team they are going to be doing a lot of jump shots.
"hey Shaun when you arrive here did you see the Japanese team running outside?" Zack Asked "yeah that's their way of warming up, they run three laps around the arena and then come in with us the do shooting warm ups, I don't know why they would waste their energy for that." Shaun said. The Japanese players have a lot of energy though so running as a warm up doesn't matter to them. The game is just now 30 minutes away and both teams are on their ends of the court warming up. Then the USA Team went to huddle up. "Ok boys listen up lets try to make our performance this time better than the last of course you all know this is a best of 3 games series and last time we didn't get one win on Japan. If we do go down lets at least make it look like we tried." The coach gave his speech. The game was now starting and the starting line ups for both teams was introduced.
USA TEAM JAPAN TEAM
PG: Shaun O'Davis PG: Zuyu Haido
SG: David Hunter SG: Ike Jisiadu
SF: Dwayne Dixon SF: Royko Mamiyuki
PF: Mike Beasley PF: Yuta Aidio
C: Ricky Rodriguez C: Toshi Takanowa
Zack was going to be on the bench for this game. The first half of the game was now starting. Japan has been known to be the most energetic and Highest scoring team for the past 6 years now. They Average 117.8 points per game that was more that the NBA's highest scoring team the Phoenix Suns and their 112.2 ppg back in America. The game was on and Japan's star player Royko was off to a very fast start having two dunks and knocking down 4 straight 3 pointers. USA's Mike Beasley was having a bad game missing his first 5 shots and missing 2 dunks. Shaun was doing the best he can to keep USA Back in this game. Japan's defense was getting better every time especially with the crowd shouting DEFENSE! Everytime the USA Team had the ball. Dwayne Dixon was now going to sit on the bench and Zack was going to take his position instead of his normal SG positons. Zack did pretty good earning 10 quick points from 2 3-pointers and 2 lay ups. The Buzzard went off it was halftime with Japan winning 62 to 42. While coming off the court Zack looked at the roaring Japanese crowd and noticed a purple haired girl sitting in the stands. It was Ayane looking at Zack smiling and holding up a sign saying "I'll see you at the 5th tournament" Zack gave her a mean look and continued to walk to the locker room. Ayane laughed at him when he gave that look.
The coach was preaching in the locker room. " We need to step up our defense and get better shots guys." He was mad at Mike because he was playing like a idiot. "BEASLEY HOW THE HELL CAN YOU MISS 2 DUNKS" the coach yelled Mike didn't even say anything. He looked at Zack and Shaun with a smile. " You two are doing a excellent job I expect you Zack to help lead the way by taking over for Dwayne when he is tired." "Yes coach I will" Zack responded. Halftime was over and the game continued. Japan's HOT shooting has cooled down and they started to miss more shots, however their defense is beating the hell out of the Americans. They are still not getting good shots and being careless with the ball. The final buzzard went off and Japan wins game one 124 to 89 it was a blowout. Royko had 34 points and Shaun and Zack had 24 points each. Japan needs to win one more time to Advance to the semi finals. The coach was upset they lost but he was proud of Zack Performance. Zack was finally getting some respect. When Zack was leaving the Arena Ayane looked at him and held up her index finger, which is a mental sign saying "one more win."
She laughed and went off in her car with a girl who appeared to be Kasumi. Zack could care less he wasn't going to let the coach or his friend down. He wanted to win. They may have lost game one but its not over. In his hotel he was thinking about some defensive moves in his PDA. He came up with some that will work, but he really need to come up with ways to stop Royko who shot 80 percent from the Field today. That's a crazy percentage but Zack was thinking to himself "He won't shoot that well Monday night" Monday is the next time they face Japan they have to win.
So was this a good chapter? I hope so oh yeah here is a lesson for those who don't know about basketball. PG means point guard position, the PG is usually a good ball handler great passer and terrific play makers, they also are good shooters from long range. SG is shooting guard they can shoot from anywhere and are great defenders from long range they are also very quick. SF is small forward they usually shoot from long rang and close range and provide Defensive help from anywhere on the court. PF is power forward provides high percentage shots from close range they are usually big in height they also help the center in offense and defense. C is center provides high percentage shots anywhere under the rim and guards the rim on defense. Also none of the players listed where real they where all made up.