Ch. 6

The rest of the day flew by and I met up with the rest of the team to watch film. Most coaches would yell at the players for making simple mistakes like turning the ball over and bad defense.

Ask any football player. Heck, just listen to Coach Hedge. He will get on you for just asking to use the bathroom in his Wildlife Survival class at Camp Half-Blood. Coach Kevin isn't like that at all. He likes to have a conversation with us to understand why we made the decision. Don't get me wrong, he will get frustrated. However, he just showcases his frustrations in a different way. He talked about the mistakes we made in the first half since that was when we made most of our mistakes. He let the tape roll in the second half and didn't bother to talk about the fourth quarter. He made his point across during the game.

Once film was finished, Coach Kevin sent us to change and get onto the court.

"Yo Brandon. You still in a pissy mood?" asked Dennis.

Brandon just stared at him. I answered for him, "Yeah Dennis, he is completely over your racist joke."

"Ugh, bro, it was a joke. My fault Brandon, sorry about that," said Dennis.

Brandon looked at me and I shrugged at him. He sighed and replied, "Whatever man."

Kyle came over and asked us, "Hey, did you guys see that freshman?"

I answered, "Ya, Coach showed him to me and Dennis. He seemed alright. Anger issue tho. Just ask Dennis."

Kyle looked at him and asked, "Yo, what's Jackson talking about, Johnson."

"Man, Percy is just getting on my case cause that freshman got his feelings hurt. I told the little man that he was a towel boy," remarked Dennis.

The whole team died in laughter. Connor was bending over and Kyle was making a funny noise that sounded like an old man with coal-black lungs wheezing.

Once Kyle caught his breath, he stated, "My man. Are you seriously that jealous to call him a towel boy cause he was picked as a freshman and you weren't."

There oohs to that response.

Dennis snapped back, "Honestly, ya man, I am a little jelly. But if I were you, I wouldn't be talking. At least called up in playoffs and got playing time. You didn't start getting minutes until this year. Your last year, senior boy."

The oohs were so loud this time, the lockers were shaking from the sound. Kyle's face turned red and shrunk back to his locker.

We walked out of the locker room and into the gym. Except somebody was already there.

Jalen was out on the court with the ball in his hand. He was behind the three-point line by five feet, NBA range.

He shoots.

Swish

Nothing but net.

We all looked at each other. This was no ordinary freshman.

Kyle leaned down to Dennis's height and whispered, "I don't think he is the towel boy. I think you are."

"Watch the cutter, Terry!"

Brandon sees Dennis cutting to the basket and delivers the perfect bounce pass to him. He catches the ball mid-stride and jumps up to meet Terry at the basket. Except Terry sees Dennis streaking too late and provides weak side help defense a second late. Dennis flys by Terry and dunks it hard. SLAM

"Sorry Percy," shouted Terry, "That's my fault."

I answered back, "It's cool, just get there earlier."

Coach Kevin likes to get us energized at the beginning of practice. So, he has us do a drill called 3-2-1. Basically, three guys start with the ball on one side of the court and weave pass it to half court. Once they pass halfcourt, they come to face off two defenders and have to score against them. If the three offensive players are in sync, they can score almost every time because they have a 3 to 2 player ratio advantage. After the offense scores or at the end of the possession, the defenders get the ball and have to score at the other basket. The person who shot the ball last has to go back and defend the other hoop. This drill helps with fast-break offense and defense. Our team is not really big and we don't have a whole lot of reliable three-point shooters. So, our best option for scoring is usually a fast break.

I brought up the ball and was dribbling up the right side. Dennis was playing lockdown defense because he knows I won't pass to Terry right away. This is true because Terry is still learning to play and cannot handle the ball very well. But he has big hands and I can use that. Dennis may be more athletic than me, but he lacks imagination. I drive hard into the right lane and shoot a layup. Dennis anticipates this and tries to cut me off so I pick up my dribble. However, I continue to drive and I lower my shoulder into his chest. I raise the ball in the air and I am about to lay it in when I see Dennis's hands come out of nowhere. Dennis's smile is so big, it is as long as Grover and Annabeth after they got stretched out by Krusty in LA. I notice that he left his feet and I smile at that. I pump fake the ball and bounce pass it to Teddy between my legs. Teddy was trailing me the whole time and knew the ball was going to him. He caught the ball and dunked it so hard, I swear I saw the glass vibrating.

"That's what I'm talking about Terry," I shouted as I fist-bumped him.

"Nice pass Percy," Terry responded.

Dennis butted in and commented, "Bruh, your lucky Jackson was in the way. Otherwise, I would have knocked your butt to the ground."

Terry raised his eyebrows and I snorted in laughter. I responded, "Ya Johnson, you could definitely block Terry's dunk, forget the fact that he is almost seven feet tall."

Dennis replied, "Hey, it doesn't matter how tall he is. He still cannot bully me in the paint."

I rolled my eyes and just watched the next players on the court. This one had Kyle, Grant, and Jalen. Grant brought the ball up and Brandon went out to guard him. However, this left Jalen wide open at the right-wing. Grant saw this out of the corner of his eye and delivered a no-look pass to Jalen. Connor sprinted towards Jalen to close out as soon as Jalen caught the ball. Jalen saw Connor sprinting towards him and pumped fake the three-pointer. Instead of shooting the ball, he drove into the paint and was met by Brandon last minute. He passed the ball between Brandon's legs and right into Kyle's hands. Brandon went to cover Kyle, but this was a total mismatch. Kyle just posted up Brandon and delivered a right-handed hook shot. Buckets

"Daaaaaang, this freshman got some moves," shouted Terry.

I elbowed Dennis and asked, "You still think he is a scrub?"

Dennis glowered at me and didn't answer my question.

After the sequence between Brandon, Connor, and Kyle finished, I got the ball. I was teamed up with Dennis and Terry against Jalen and Grant. Jalen is fairly short and Grant is like a few inches taller than me. So, the best option is to pass a lob to Terry. The only problem with that is Dennis doesn't see that. After my comment, he made it his personal mission to embarrass the kid.

As I was bringing up the ball, came out to defend me. I noticed Jalen was leaning towards Terry, so the best option is to pass to Dennis and let him pass it to Terry inside the paint. So, passed it to Dennis and sure enough, Jalen came out to defend Dennis. Except Dennis didn't pass it to Terry right away. He just held the ball.

I yelled, "Dennis! Just pass it to Terry. He is wide open!"

He responded, "Nah, Jackson. I got this."

Jalen commented, "Your gonna get nothing bruh."

Dennis looked down at the freshman and said, "Is that so? You sure about that?"

Jalen replied, "Ya, not even your mama can save you from embarrassment."

Oh dam. Why did he have to bring up his mama?

Dennis looked livid. It was as if he was a cartoon and smoke was steaming out of his ears.

Dennis angrily said, "I'm gonna destroy you so bad, Coach is gonna send you back down to JV. It is gonna be so bad, you will be sent to the bench."

Dennis jab stepped to the right and dribbled towards the top of the key with his left. Jalen bit on the jab and tried to recover by overcompensating to his right. As soon as this happened, Dennis switched directions by dribbling the ball behind his back. Grant tried to help the double team and cut off Dennis's right side. Dennis saw this right away and split the double team by dribbling the ball from behind his in between his legs like he was Kyrie with the ball on a string. Then he shot a jelly layup with his right and kissed off the glass into the basket. He smirked at Jalen and blew him a kiss. This pissed off Jalen and he sprinted towards the other basket after the ball was inbounded. Jalen didn't even bother to look for Grant. He was just locked in and was battling Dennis one-v-one. Dennis knew the kid had range, so he crowded Jalen's space to see if the freshman had any handles. Jalen was holding his own for a bit and dribbled crossover to the left. He got Dennis beat and drove into the left. He smiled at the open lane was going to lay it in with his right. However, Dennis recovered quickly and swatted the ball out of the air like it was a fly.

Dennis shouted, "YOU CAN'T SCORE ON ME!"

Jalen shoved Dennis out of frustration. Dennis came right back at him and got into Jalen's face.

Phwwwwwwwhht

Coach Kevin whistled and came in between Jalen and Dennis to break them up.

Coach Kevin intervened, "Okay guys, back it up. Jalen, this is Varsity. You can't bring that weak stuff into the paint. If you are going to go inside, you need to go strong. And you can't get so easily distracted or allow your opponent into your head. If you weren't so focused on trying to score on Dennis, you would have noticed Grant was wide open for a three-pointer."

Dennis smirked at Jalen getting scolded by Coach.

Coach Kevin noticed this and added, "Oh, you're not much better Dennis. You are the one who started this whole thing in the first place. If you weren't so focused on trying to show up Jalen, you would have noticed Terry was wide open for a lob. You are a senior, dammit, you should know better."

Coach looked at us and said, "Basketball is a team sport. That means we need to have teamwork in order to win. If we start playing hero ball, we will never be able to compete. So, if we want to reach state, we need to play together and less against each other. Understand?"

We responded, "Yes."

Coach Kevin glowered at us and repeated, "Understand?"

We responded in unison, "Yes, Coach."

"Alright. Because you two made us delay practice, I want everyone on the line. We are gonna run suicides," Coach added.

Everyone groaned and mumbled some unflattering comments about running.

Dennis went over to Jalen and commented, "Thanks a lot, freshman. This is on you."

Jalen scowled at the comment and was about to respond except I stepped in between them.

I stated, "Hey, this is on both of you guys. But if you say anything else, Coach is going to make us run even more. So, shut it."

Jalen glared at Dennis and walked to the other side of the court.

Coach Kevin had us run suicides for half an hour. After we finished running, Coach had us run a couple of plays. He pitted starters against the second string. This wasn't really about scoring, it was all about perfection. If Coach Kevin didn't like how we executed the play, he would have us run it again. It doesn't matter if we scored, we run the play again if it wasn't perfect. He one time had us practice one play for the whole practice because we kept getting it wrong. This time was much better though. We pretty much finished his playbook and finished off with inbound plays.

Coach Kevin gathered the team together and stated, "Ok guys, we had a shaky start, but we finished strong. I'm proud of you guys. Tomorrow's practice is gonna be much lighter. We are just going to go through a couple of plays and some defensive tactics for the next game. We are facing Edgarton Day and Boarding School. They are one of the top five basketball programs in California behind Mater Dei, Sierra Canyon, and Chino Hills. Also, the game will be televised. So, get some rest and watch their game tape."

Everyone started to disperse to the locker rooms and some others went multiple baskets to practice their free throws.

Dennis pulled me aside and asked, "Dude, I need you to guard me for a bit. I need to practice my fadeaway."

I shrugged and said, "Sure bro."

Dennis got the ball at the elbow and had his back facing me. I put my arm into his back and used my other hand to block his view on the right. He took a couple of dribbles trying to back me down, but he was going nowhere. Suddenly, he picked the ball up and turned to his left. He rose up to shoot over me and leaned back. I rose my hand up to block his view since I couldn't get close to the ball.

He released the ball and said, "Kobe."

Swish

I shook my head and asked, "You still think you need more practice from my defense?"

He shrugged and said, "Hey, you're the best defender on the team. Plus, I need to practice my balance. My leg was off a bit. It needs to be perfect for the game. It's all about that Mamba Mentality."

Coach walked over to us and said, "Hey Percy. Can I talk to you for a second?"

I nodded and walked with him to a couple of chairs on the sideline.

He stated, "I need you to step up and get Jalen comfortable with the team. He may talk a big game, but he is just a freshman trying to fit in. He may not look much, but his range can help us get over the top."

I nodded and answered, "For sure, Coach. I'll help him out."

He smiled and replied, "Thanks a lot Jackson. You may not believe this, but the guys look up to you. Even Dennis."

I was stunned. How was that possible? Dennis didn't look up to anyone except Kobe Bryant.

Coach noticed my bewildered look and continued, "You just have this calm presence. You remind me of quiet before the storm. You have this chill persona. But once the game starts, you attack as if your life depends on it."

It's probably because my life usually depends on it since everyone is trying to kill me.

Coach added, "Anyways, thanks for looking out. Also, for our next game, one of their key players is their shooting guard. He has a solid jumper and can handle the decently. But his athleticism is off the charts and he can jump out of the gym. I'm gonna need you to cover him most of the game because no one will be able to match him, not even Dennis."

I nodded and responded, "Ya, I gotcha Coach. I like a challenge."

I hesitated for a second and then asked, "Who is it that I'm guarding?"

Coach Kevin answered, "He is one of the top recruits in the nation. His name is Jason Grace."

If you reached this far, then you are most likely a basketball fan. And if that is the case, you must know what happened today, January 26, 2020. Today, there was a tragic accident that involved Kobe Bryant and some of his friends who died in a helicopter accident. I want you guys to pay your respects to Kobe and his family. He is a legend who died too young. He was making a difference in the world and has made a huge impact on my life. He is one of my heroes. He showed athletes are more than just jocks and should not shut up and dribble. He won an Oscar, wrote several books, and was a loving father. I may not be a Lakers fan, but I will forever respect him and his dedication. His daughter Gianna was taken too soon as well and I believed she would have made an impact in the future as well. So, I will make a chapter dedicated to him, but I do not know when. Please enjoy life and tell the people who are important in your life that you love them. Whenever you take a shot on the court or shoot a crumpled up paper in a trash can, just remember the Black Mamba and say, Kobe.

RIP Kobe Bean Bryant and Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant