Double Dribble - Chapter 2: Prodigy?

Chapter 2: Prodigy?


Hotshot’s teammates weren’t extremely stunned but still took it by surprise. Jamal himself wasn’t that happy about it however.

“Alright, then why are you here?” Jamal blurted.

“I practiced some moves, and thought that they are good for my game!”
“Then where did you learn from those moves?” Mick asked.

…

Coach Acer looked at team D’s huddle and looked back at their portfolios.

“So far everyone has been okay on team D except for Kyle. I’m interested at what this Hotshot guy can do.” Coach Acer thought himself. “From the dunk he did earlier he was incredibly acrobatic and can jump really high. But it seems like he lacked the fundamentals.”

Coach Acer then took another look at Hotshot’s portfolio and at the experience section, Hotshot wrote ‘no real basketball experience.’ Underneath Hotshot’s portfolio Kelvin’s can be seen, and the letters ‘under 21’ was shown.

“This will be an interesting match…”

…

The talk continued for team D. Kelvin decided to leave out Hotshot on the offensive end, and said, “Hotshot, judging from what your talents have I think you can just go for loose balls or rebounds and pass the ball back to your teammate.”

“…but I want to show off the moves I learnt! Getting on the national scale man, you know? I ain’t going to listen to your plan and I’ll get my points myself!” Hotshot yelled and turned around. Kelvin wasn’t that pleased but he didn’t yell back at Hotshot.

“Don’t worry man, he’s just hotheaded. I don’t think he meant it. We go back to the plan we had then.” Jamal said. The other agreed (without Hotshot) and the game resumes.

The next baskets primarily involved the opposing point guard passing to their small forward which Hotshot was guarding. Obviously they were exploiting Hotshot’s weak defensive knowledge and experience. Hotshot was faked out or was passed by the opposing player. However they didn’t make most of the shots, and the score now was 15-18 with team A leading.

On offense Hotshot was pretty much an afterthought with Kelvin choosing to drive into the lane a bit more. Jamal also started to show off some of his repertoire of post-up moves. In later possessions, team A even didn’t bother to guard Hotshot.

It was team D’s turn on offense, after team A missed out on a three pointer. Mick picked up the rebound and passed to Kelvin who took the ball down the court.

“Guys, we’ll catch up! Don’t worry!” Kelvin yelled to his teammates. He then saw Ricky running about, and passed to him.

!!!

The opposing player saw through the pass and slapped the ball near the side of the court!

“Shit!” Ricky cursed.

But then Hotshot was right at where the ball would be. He got the ball, and then everyone on the court looked at what he could do. He was at the baseline, totally open and was about 16 feet away from the left of the basket.

“Hotshot pass the ball to me!” Mick yelled. He blocked out his defender and was in a good position to receive a pass.

Hotshot had the ball for about another second standing still.

…

It was summer. Hotshot himself was on a cement basketball court outdoors, at a rather run-down urban housing area. There was nobody at the court, since it was almost 95 degrees Fahrenheit at his town and the cement made it even hotter. He wasn’t wearing any clothes, and was sweating profusely.

He was only wearing a pair of shorts and sneakers. However, his sneakers were not normal, they had wide pads underneath them. Hotshot took a basketball and dribbled it around for a little. He went over to the baseline.

“And over here, Michael Jordan would go down the court…” Hotshot muttered as he started dribbling forward, and started going down low. “…and then he jumps right off here…and BLAM!” And that was what Hotshot did, he did a slight pumpfake midair and went for a one-handed slam with the ball.

Hotshot landed on the ground but it felt like he was weighing more than he should be.

“Damn these shoes are heavy!” Hotshot got the ball from the ground and took it to another spot within the 3 point range. “But if I were to become an NBA superstar, these shoes are worth my moola!”

“Okay…from here, Plus1 legend Shoop did a killer crossover spin…” And that was what Hotshot did. He dribbled the ball in between his legs, and tried to spin left afterwards. He then stopped short. “No wait, it wasn’t like that…” Hotshot went back to position and tried again.

…

Just when Hotshot had a short flashback of what happened during last summer before he got into university, his marker on the defensive end came up to him and started defending him.

“Yo Hotshot! I dunno what’s with you but I’m takin’ you down!” The opposing player said.

Hotshot himself stared at the forward path. In his eyes, there was a player in front of him. But in his eyes, he was envisioning himself going past the player and going in for a layup. Or maybe a dunk.

Making the decision Hotshot gathered his focus again.

“Sorry man, I’m going to the NBA and you aren’t. It’ll end with this move here.”

Then Hotshot started dribbling. He moved his right leg forward and dribbled with his left hand. The opposing player, thinking that he was left-handed and based on the thought that Hotshot was a crappy player, went for the ball.

Hotshot immediately did a crossover dribble and a spin move to the right at almost the same time.

“What the…”

Hotshot did not hesitate while the opposing player was blurting out that line and moving in the opposite direction. He kept on dribbling forward. The person who got blocked off by Mick earlier came right up while Hotshot jumped off.

Seeing that there was a person right in front of him, Hotshot instinctively remembered the ‘Michael Jordan move’ that he learnt and immediately put the ball down in midair to avoid from the opponent.

Hotshot now had a clear look at the basket. Raising his hand again with the ball, he immediately did a one-handed slam dunk!

“Woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Some of the guys off the court watching them play yelled.

“Ah man, it’s always nice to get some cheers for a prodigy like me.” Hotshot said to himself, smiling.

His teammates were completely in awe of what Hotshot just did. His opponents were even more in awe seeing as Hotshot passed through their two guys effortlessly.

Hotshot ran back to his team’s defense and yelled at his teammates, “What are you guys doing? Let’s go back on D!” And the other guys went back to defense along with him.

“…so it was true.” Kelvin said while Hotshot was standing next to him. “What you said was true.”

“If you really only practiced moves you learnt from streetball video tapes you might be better than I thought.” Kelvin muttered.

“Hey Kelv, make that ‘we’.” Jamal said from behind.

“Yeah, and Hotshot better do a little more D!” Ricky said.

“I’ll try, I’ll try. But when it comes to offense, I’ll make those guys pay for going over me so easily!” Hotshot said.

“…yeah, but Hotshot doesn’t have the skills except for going for offense yeah?” Mick uttered.

“True that. I guess he’ll have to learn the ropes.” Jamal said.

“So all in all, you still suck on defense. But I’ll cover your butt.” Mick said.

“What? I suck on defense?” Hotshot turned around and saw Mick and Jamal nod. He then looked to Kelvin and saw him nod as well.

“Guys, they’re comin’ at us.” Ricky said.

The score was now 17-18.

…

After a few more exchanges of baskets, team D managed to scrape the 21 point mark by beating team A 21-20. The match was tight, since Hotshot’s weakness in defense was still exploited. However team A didn’t get their baskets with Mick helping Hotshot in defense. In return, all the baskets after the 17 point mark by team D were all by Hotshot himself.

“Alright guys, good game and team D will go towards the next round with the winner of team B and C.” Coach Acer said. “Team B and C, it’s your turn.”

- End Chapter 2: Prodigy? -


Next Chapter: A hidden gem in team B?