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Prologue of a story about a basketball team in a university |
This is the prologue of a 'manga idea' which was in my head for a while. However, I do not have the drawing skills at all, thus relegating to the idea of writing the whole thing out instead (not that writing is bad). The basis of the manga/story is that the main character is a basketball player who just entered a US university and got into the basketball team through a tryout. Comments welcome. You can find (approximately) weekly updates here: http://pen-writing.livejournal.com/ Critiques are definitely welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It all started here. Itâs October, about two months since start of the fall semester in the university. Usually the more studious people would start worrying about mid-terms, while the lazier ones prefer just skipping them outright. However, someone still believed that thereâs some sort of extracurricular activity that goes aside from learning in class. You might ask, did this person join any clubs? He looked around and actually checked out the âBasketball Clubâ which was basically gathering about once every two or three day to watch old NBA games on NBA TV when theyâre on replay (the season doesnât start until November). They usually say âooh,â âahhâ when Magic Johnson did that no-look pass, or like when Michael Jordan did all the impossible stuff while sticking his tongue out. They did play some pickup games indoors, but their skills were generally average at best. He played with them in some games but usually it ends up with his side losing since his teammates werenât clicking with him well. His teammates were usually worse than him in basketball skills and most of the time he was the one with the ball while others are looking at him and hoping heâd score. The president of the club met with him a week ago and asked if he was interested in trying out for the basketball team. ⌠âIs it one of those local casual leagues?â He asked the president. Given that the presidentâs a senior, he looked pretty young. His name is George Booth, majoring in Finance and graduating next semester. Heâs about 6-3, but in most of the pickup games, he didnât play or just posed as the ref. He did have a lot of knowledge about the game though. But when he played, thereâs nobody whoâs worse off than him. They play 5 on 5 and he got the 4 (power forward), but heâs lanky, and didnât have the skills to at least complement his position, or any other position. His best move was a fade-away jumper which has a 99% chance of getting the ball stuck at that wedge between the board and the rim. And heâs always teamed up with the president, no matter what. âKT, itâs not that. Heard of NCAA basketball?â âYeah. So whatâs about that?â KT thought that George must be thinking a freshman like him from outside the U.S. wouldnât know a damn thing about basketball besides the NBA. âWhy donât you give it a try? I think youâll get into the team.â He seemed to get a little more excited now. ââŚdonât flatter me. I thought all universities in major divisions get players through scholarships?â As KT told George matter-of-factly, his eyes somehow glowed. Knowing George, KT understands that somethingâs coming up⌠âKelvin, you had it wrong! While our university is part of the NCAA Division I, it doesnât mean that ALL players come into the team on scholarship! Thatâs why the team holds tryouts for any gems they missed!â Man, this guy can get intense when you gave him the wrong fact. âOkay okay I get it! So what now? Where the hell do I find the tryout?â âItâs next Friday and itâll be held at the Joseph Brand Memorial Stadium. Give it a try, I think you can make it.â âSure, whatever.â ... You see now, this is where the prologue ends and the real thing comes along. Back to reality and Kelvin was now lined up with about 15 African Americans who were pretty much a head taller than him, at least. Oh, and those 5 white guys who were as tall as they are. Kelvin was the shortest guy and heâs feeling it. An old man, while his hair is white, looked pretty young himself, wearing a red-T shirt with our universityâs name sketched on it. Heâs also wearing a rolex. Kelvin figured that heâs the coach. âAlright guys, thanks for coming to our universityâs menâs basketball tryouts for the upcoming season. My name is Randy Acer and Iâm the head coach of the U of Southwestern Texas Greenhorns.â Obviously heâs not wearing green, and the âTexasâ on the shirt was quite misleading. âJust in case youâre wondering why Iâm wearing a t-shirt thatâs not green, I come from UT and this is their color, in case you donât know.â So a coach whoâs just came from U of Texas? Upon hearing that name Kelvinâs clenched his fists for half a second, his eyes seemingly appearing with a bit of anger. âAlright guys, lemme line up the facts here. Currently this team is 3 men short. Thatâs right, thereâs only 3 guys from you 24 people who can make it to the team. So make it count when youâre playing during the tryouts. Weâll look for all traits of you that will contribute to this team.â The facts were there, 24 people going for 3 spots make it tough. Especially Kelvin who figured that all these people were at least a head taller than him. âTodayâs rundown will be quite simple. First, you guys will be playing 5-on-5 scrimmage where the first team who gets to 21 points wins. Think of it as a tournament where thereâs 4 teams. Each team will have 6 players, and when thereâs a team who gets to 10 points first, the sixth man must be subbed in, and Iâll make the decision on who is subbing for who. After that all the other 4 players can be freely subbed at any time like a real basketball game.â âWinners of each group in this tournament will face each other while the losers will face each other. After everything is over, me and my other coaches who are seated right above there,â Randy points to the edge of the spectator stands. âWe will make a decision on who will be go through the first round. The second round will happen next Monday where weâll interview with you and check your mind and academics and so on. But Iâll tell you guys later, if you get in.â Randy then waved for his other assistants to come over and pass out some forms. âGuys, fill in this little bit of information of yours, like what you achieved and what your position is. After that hand back to me or my assistants. You guys can do warm-ups until Iâm done with your forms. Questions?â One black guy raised his hand. A particularly tall one too. âYo coach! How do we know which team weâre on?â âGood question, I missed out on that one. Somebodyâs listening!â Mr. Acer gave a slight pause before continuing. âThatâs after you filled in with that form. Weâll distribute it as evenly as possible and see which guys are in which team.â So Kelvin was handed with my form, and filled out with all information he thought that wouldnât help his chances for getting into the team. It was clear that Kelvin didnât want to play for a UT graduate. He just has that hate, but he kept it within himself. Of course he didnât have any problems with that Acer guy, but he believed that playing under a UT grad is an insult. After a while Kelvin figured that maybe he should stop filling out the form and walk away instead. He looked at the other guys, they were filling out their forms too, but one African-American was just staring at the form and seemingly blanked out. He then put down his pen and leaped onto court. He looked around and found a basketball. Heâs the guy standing next to the guy who raised his hand earlier. Heâs about 6-7. Other guys were starting to notice his antics too. He grabbed the ball, and dribbled it to the top of the 3 point line. âHey Mr. Acer! Who wants to fill out these damned forms, we just wanna play ball! Lemme show you why I deserve a spot!â He then threw the ball forward, directly at the backboard to the left of the rim, and ran after the ball. The ball bounced back, he caught it, and did a windmill dunk with both hands. Kelvin and others looked quite surprised. Kelvin thought he saw something like that in the NBA slam dunk contest. Those dunks were sick, but he usually didnât think that they were really *that* acrobatic. Seeing it live made him understand why people were cheering in their stands when they made a thunderous one. The guy had a confident smirk that looked like heâs going to be in the team. Now all eyes were on coach. âSir, I donât know who you are yet but fill out that damn form before you showcase your dunking skills in front of us.â Well, so much for this guy making the team. The tall dude went from a confident smirk to a growl and hanging his head low afterwards. He then moved back and stared at his form again, but he didnât finch this time around. He started filling up the form. After a while Kelvin finished his form while some guys are doing shootarounds. In fact, some of them were just dribbling with the ball casually and chatting with each other. Kelvin took a ball and shot for a while. The coach came out with his assistant coaches. âAlright guys, letâs gather up here.â âThere will be 4 teams as I said. Team A consists ofâŚâ Kelvin seemingly didnât listen much, but not until he didnât get his name heard for the first 3 teams. âAlright, and team D will have Kelvin Tang, Mick Gonzalez, Jamal Johnson, Kyle Kinston, Ricky Daniels andâŚHotshot Maxwell.â Hotshot Maxwell? Who the hell calls himself by that? Oh. Itâs the guy who did that dunk earlier. Kelvinâs thought that this guy will probably make or break this team was slowly floating about. âGuys, weâll start with team A versus team D now.â Kelvin made a sarcastic âOh great!â mutter to himself. He didnât like the immediate matchup and pairing up with Mr. Hotshot, obviously. âAnd for team A, Avery Everett will be the sixth man, and the slam dunk champion of todayâs tryout, Hotshot Maxwell will be the sub for team D. Iâll give you guys 5 minutes before playing to get to know each other and how to play your roles.â - End Prologue - |