180 Tope

I agreed to come for practice but only for a little bit as I wanted to refresh my mind and take a step back to enjoy life as what I had been through with the military had made quite an impact on me.

After explaining what I wanted to do, he agreed and hung up the phone. I then called all my family members to let them know that I had arrived in Nigeria safely as they were all worried since they heard about what had happened on the plane.

That night I decided to head out and grab some local food, so I went to a chop bar as they had a live band available with a few performers. I sat down and ordered a small meal, sorry I mean a big meal of fufu and light soup while I cracked open a bottle of Star beer, as I downed it halfway and started chowing down.

The music was smooth and relaxing. I enjoyed my time there. Some people were eyeing me, but I ignored them. A few ladies tried to sit next to me, but I shooed them away because I was not interested in talking to anybody but just enjoying time to myself before my life gets hectic with the nba season coming up.

I took a walk around town after eating to my fill to burn off the food before heading back to my hotel room. Finally, nothing crazy went wrong while I was out there. I felt like something would always happen whenever I went somewhere. It was either I was getting robbed or something crazy was going to happen, but this time nothing happened, which made me happy.

I was wondering how my old teammates were doing from the secret assassination missions. I hope they were recovering well since some of them had lost their limbs , and Dan had lost his life. I wanted to see his pregnant wife and wondered if she had the baby yet.

When I get back to the States, I will see her before heading to the NBA. I will take over the responsibility of watching over his family on the financial end since he had my back when we were doing our time in the military

After thinking for a bit, I finally fell asleep, waking up to a phone call the next day as the coach nwora had called me saying the practice had started 5 minutes ago. I hung up and quickly got ready, well, not swiftly, but I took my time. I didn't need to go to their practice; I just wanted to see if they had improved.

As soon as I stepped into the gym, I saw this 6'8 guy jumping over two other guards as he slammed it right down on them, kicking both of them to the ground. I had stars in my eyes as I watched this all happen in slow motion.

He had gained gray hair over the years because the last time I saw him, all his hair was black as the night, but now it seems like this team had been stressing him out for him to go gray hair.

"Hey, super star welcome back to Nigeria. I am so happy that you made it and hope that you can bring success to this team. The last time you were here, you taught us a lot, and with the teachings that you gave us, we used that to advance and get better. We even switched out some of our players that were slacking. Now it seems like we're in a better position than we were all those years ago."

I nodded my head, but I had to see for myself before I would judge them. Coach nwora knew what I thought as he quickly said," oh, please go change and come and join us for the practice. You can run a quick game, the starters versus the bench. You can pick whichever team you want to be on, it doesn't matter I know whichever team you are on you win, I have been following your career so far, and I'm glad that you have not gotten worse but have to continue to improve yourself and move to the next level".

I wondered how he could follow my career, but then I remembered that ESPN had recorded the last match against China. I simply nodded my head as this guy was all smiles hovering all over me.

Some of the guys that recognized me came to say hi as they hovered over me like fanboys, but I ignored them and went to change. I came back and I saw them all eagerly waiting for me with excited faces on them except for one guy. 

That same one that had dunked over the two guys. It seemed like he had become the alpha of the team. He looked rough and tough 6'8 tall, nicely built and seemed like he could dunk on anybody and didn't care who was going against him.

I liked this attitude as I moved everybody a side and went straight to him and asked him for his name.

"My name is Tope. I'm a Yoruba man with great pride. I'm the strongest on the team as I have been made the captain since I am the best and to be the best you have to be able to beat me and I know that you have high praise from the coach because he doesn't stop talking about you, but whenever he talks about you I tell him that I can beat you, so that's what I'm going to do now, let me see how you ball".

I was a little surprised he said that, but he had gotten my approval. He wasn't like the others who just were all smiles and were kissing ass, but he went straight to the points and challenged the best one on the court, which was me. I accepted his challenge, "okay Mr. Tope, let's get this match on the way, then shall we?"