Chapter 7
(Basketball Jones song starts playing)
Meanwhile, back in the Queen City of Charlotte, Philip who is currently walking in the park wearing his Charlotte Hornets mask that matches his Hornets t-shirt and jogging pants was watching a group of kids in the park playing basketball while wearing their masks. Ever since that incident at the Chase Center, everyone went back to wearing their masks for those who wanted to play basketball. He himself and his four best friends who suffered from the same issue was immediately been signed to the team's hospital to be treated from day one. Of course, they had a little bit of freedom and limited time both outside and off the hospital grounds. Philip took this time to go grant a Make a Wish Foundation wish to a twelve-year-old white girl who is suffering from dyslexia and dysarthria.
Based on the letter that the charity has sent him through his email the girl's wish was for her to play and win a game with her favorite Hornets player, which so happens to be him. Philip stopped at the tall fence that surrounds the basketball court to make sure he will be standout amongst the bystanders. The ginger-headed girl with freckles managed to block one of her friend's shot attempts and ran over to get the ball that rolled its way toward the tall fence. Upon reaching the ball and bending down to pick it up and resume playing, the girl whose name is Lisa stopped to look at Philip's Hornets-style basketball shoes and slowly looked up to see the man smiling at her. Lisa slowly got up with the ball in her hands and had a look of shock and disbelief.
"Your...Your Philip Colson." Lisa spoke in disbelief.
Philip smiled happily at his fan with a nod while pulling his mask down to speak clearly. "Yep, that is me, Lisa. On the behalf of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, I have come to grant your wish and help boost your confidence."
Lisa turned to her group of friend girls. "Girls come here quick!."
Without a single hesitation, the group of girls rushed over to where Lisa is and stood in awe at noticing Philip there.
"Girls look it's Philip Colson!." spoke Lisa with new enthusiasm.
The girls wowed out loud as they were seeing one of the legendary current NBA stars of the Hornets right in front of them. Philip can help but to chuckle at their reaction toward him.
"If it is not any bother can I come and play with you girls for a little while?." Philip asked with the mental idea of what he already knew of their reactions.
"Yes, come on in!." spoke one of the girls.
It did not take long for the rest to encourage to come on in while some high-five each other on having the chance to play with one of their heroes of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team. Philip grinned in response as he can not wait to both fulfill his disordered fan's dream and to prove to himself that night against Golden State Warriors was just a performance misunderstanding. But boy how foolishly wrong he is. Upon starting a new game, Lisa checked the ball with her friend and then passed the ball to Philip who then started dribbling and got tripped up with the basketball. With this it made him fall to the ground while the girl from the opposite team took the ball and ran to score points for her team.
Philip shook it off while getting off the concrete basketball court. "That is a freebie." He looked at Lisa and winked. "I've gotta be considered."
Lisa grinned in response to what Philip said and resumed playing. The next serve had Philip on defense and he once again blocked the wrong person and let the other score again. Only this time Philip is blocking one of the girls who are on the bench and is not playing the current game none whatsoever. This made everyone who is playing or watching notice really fast that Philip is not putting on a show or goofing around with kids. No, his play performance is unfortunately serious in the wrong way.
Every girl crossed the poor man up multiple times and never took the ball for them and just keep snatching air as soon as one of the girls take off to shoot. Philip started to run in the opposite direction once his team had got the ball and got the ball snatched away from an attempted shoot attempt and, then ran over towards the man who once again ran in the other opposite direction. Lisa checked the ball with Philip and then quickly slapped the ball out of his hands before he can make a move. Philip looked at the girl who had a very disappointed look on her face while having all her friends behind her. Sharing the same look as her.
"Why are you playing like you never played basketball before?." Lisa asked him in her disability slurred speech. "Why can you not keep up with any one of us?. I'm sorry, Mr. Colson but you need to leave. Because you and basketball no longer mix. And I'm now leaving your fan club. You broke your promise of boosting my confidence and did the complete opposite."
Philip did not say a single word after hearing his now-former fan. In response, he took the girl's advice and turned to exit himself off the court and out of the park both slowly and painfully limping. That is due to having both of his ankles taken during the time of playing. To top everything off, the bystanders recorded everything that took place and began posting it to both Instagram and Youtube, just to add insult to injury. Meanwhile, at the downtown hospital, José, Big Mike, Rick, and Tyson were in their hospital gowns walking and talking to one of the assigned doctors about going through multiple tests and such.
The only issue was that only José can understand what the doctor is saying due to the doctor being hispanic and speaking in spanish. Leaving Big Mike, Rick, and Tyson to have that little frown and more irritation about the whole thing. They walked down the hall and just can not take another second of them being left out in gaining information about their current situation. Big Mike was a second away from telling the doctor to speak english until he, Rick, and Tyson collided their heads up against the double doors that closed automatically if not pressing the handicapped pad. José turned to see his best friends laying down slightly unconscious before looking back at his doctor.
"You were not kidding about us having the lack of focus and seeing our surroundings," spoke José.
During the last few hours, they all went through multiple physical testing with zero results of what the doctors are looking for. Currently, they were each taking mental therapy with their pay-no-expense therapist, Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil of all people. The good doctor was at his desk listening to Philip who is pacing back and forth slowly as he took his time explaining today's events with depression in his voice.
"I just ruined that little girl's confidence. She is longer wanting to be my fan anymore. I would do anything for my fans." Philip spoke pacing up and down slowly with his arms behind his back. "I screwed up at the park and got owned by a couple of little girls and have not scored a single shot upon play. To top it all off, people posted my poor performance on youtube and the video is getting beyond over five million views."
"Well, Philip." Dr. Phil jolted down what is said to him in his notebook. "It is kinda natural to dream about losing a game and disappointing your fans due to you still being traumatized after playing against the warriors."
With no hesitation, Philip turned around and slammed his hands on the desk with a serious look. "Man, have you not heard what I just said?. This was not a dream. I literally lost a game of basketball against a twelve-year-old."
The next person was José who is laying on the long therapy chair saying what came to his mind. "I went to the sensor citizens' hall and played some B-ball with the elders as part of my community service. Of course, I lost to them not due to taking it too easy with them. Instead, I played very slow when running to the other side of the court and just could not keep up with the eighty-year-olds. I had a very hard time catching the ball when the ball was being passed to me and kept fumbling it. I lost my tempo when dribbling the ball which caused me to lose control of the ball. On top of that, I can not keep up when the opposite team ran to their side of the court and I'm still on the other side."
"And how often do you do this?." asked Dr. Phil.
"You're saying that it is because I despised my grandmother?." asked José, confused.
"I did not say anything about your grandmother, José. You said it. Not me." Dr. Phil corrected.
José bends his head back to see Dr. Phil upside down with a look of hurt. "But I love my la abuelita."
"Not paying attention to any word that I said," commented Dr. Phil, writing it all down for notes.
His next patient was Big Mike who told him everything that he was going through mentally. Mentioning that he looks confident in what he is doing but was not feeling confident in doing it. Taking in what was said, Dr. Phil removed his glasses and had a hypothesis.
"Is your lack of confidence the cause of..." Dr. Phil was hesitant to say it but managed to say it. "Not getting any loving in bed at home?."
Big Mike frowned at that question which caused him to lift up from the chair and looked at Dr. Phil. "Man, No!. My wife always gives me the booty. Even there were times I did not feel like bumping and grinding in the bedroom."
"Hey." Dr. Phil lifts his hands up in defense. "I'm just guessing on that one."
For Rick, he explained the events from the game against Golden State about he claimed that something had entered his body and taken out something important from him, and now can feel the same like he should which is indeed hard to explain.
"The feeling went to the brain." Rick got up from his seat to show his body language and started wiggling. "And I started wiggling uncontrollably like I got the case of the wiggles."
Finally, he got to Tyson after giving José another hour of therapy at his request. Instead of getting the same results as the others, Tyson is slowly coming to grips with his situation.
"Well, I'm somewhat okay with ending my basketball career so soon. I mean we did win the NBA finals back to back, back to back, back to back, and became fourteen-time and current defending world champions. I can just retire just like my best bud John, and go back to my family's dairy farm and run the family business. I'm quite a legend when it comes down to milking cows." said Tyson, looking up at the ceiling.
"Well, at least you're staying focused and being considerate," commented Dr. Phil, sighing in relief.
After finishing getting their mental therapy all five were talking about today's failed attempt of getting diagnoses while being wheelchaired by the nurses and wearing their masks.
"Man, we freaking did MRI. EKG, X-rays, Laser beams. Dr. Phil." spoke an upset Big Mike.
"And let us not forget the constant urine tests and eye examinations," added Tyson, rubbing his temples.
"Yeah, that too." Big Mike agreed while crossing his big arms. "But after all this, they still can not find what is wrong with us but still they want us in quarantine protocols."
"You know something amigos?. This is just all in our heads if you really think about it in a third-person point of view," said José, coming up with a somewhat accurate theory.
"Hey...Hey, you are absolutely right, José!." Rick spoke with a little enthusiasm and pointed to the side of his head. "This might be all in our heads."
José nodded in his own therapy. "It is all probably because we are having a mental breakdown of thinking that we can not succeed in winning a fifteen championship without John. I think with a good time away from basketball and focusing more on our mental health then everything will be back to normal."
And just to be sure in case José's theory and his solution is wrong, Philip and the four took the time to go to an empty church and started praying and making promises to the Lord.
"I promise I will never ever brag or boast our winning scores and championships on Twitter and Facebook." began Philip who had his hands together and looked up. "I will never talk junk towards the other opposite players. I will never curse out the referees ever again. I'll never listen to rap music again."
Given even more thought to what to give up that he will not miss at all until it hit Philip. "I...I stop drinking and advertising for alcoholic beverages."
Meanwhile, back at the country club resort, Betty is currently fixing the fountain after draining all the water out and checking to see what needed fixing. Having the mindset attempt of trying to go where John was due to scared motivation. And that motivation was John's wife who is been calling Betty to see what time will John get home since his charity event had ended hours ago. Betty had to come out with some convincing stories for Gwen to believe and persuaded her to not drive up here by any means necessary. This drives Betty to fix the fountain that does not need fixing at all.
"Uh, ma'am?."
Betty stopped unscrewing the bolt from the machine to look up to see a white boy in his bowling team clothes looking at her.
"Uh, yeah?." responded Betty, along having a 'What Lie Should I say This Time' facial expression.
"Is uh...Is John King still here in his resort by any chance?." asked the boy.
"Oh, well, John is handling some important business calls with one of the banks he owns and there is no telling when he will be done." lied Betty.
"Oh, well, okay then." the boy was about to leave when he stopped to see what Betty is doing. "Umm, what exactly are you doing to that water fountain?."
Betty stopped at resuming her attempt and spoke what came to her mind. "I'm fixing the broken fountain."
The boy nodded and left her be and said to his other friends who wanted to take pictures and sign autographs with John. "Hey, guys the crazy messy-haired illegal foreigner says that John King is doing some important business call at his banks."
Betty stopped hearing what the white boy just said and managed to keep her temper at bay while resuming fixing the not broken at all water fountain. "Racist little boy. I am a US citizen thank you. That is so offensive on so many levels."