Chapter 203 - Runner Up Shot

When I got home after having dinner with Gilbert I told my family about me having to stay in the Wizards, they were a little bit sad as they wanted to go someplace warmer but they had to live with my decisions well not really. They were free to go anywhere they wanted as we had money at this point. We were halfway there to being rich but we aren't quite there yet.

The studio had taken up most of my money but now that I was getting endorsements, money was flowing in like water from different places. I had to do advertisements once the summer league was over and that should let me get quite a good penny before stepping into the NBA hard floor.

I asked Rasta how the studio was going and he said we need a couple more million dollars to finalize a few things before we could finish up. I was shocked, this project was becoming quite expensive. I hope that by the end of everything we should be on top of every musical business.

The next day that the summer league finally started. The gym was packed with fans and reporters alike. The ȧssistant coach was talking to us about what we should do and what we should not do. 

The main Coach never handled the summer leagues so the ȧssistant coach always took that up just to get experience under his belt. Coach B we called him, he wanted me to be the ball handler since I was passing a lot during our practice runs.

I didn't mind it so I decided to do just that but after the conversation with Gilbert last night it seems like I'll have to shoot more than often. The tip-off finally went on. The guy that I was going to be guarding was called Bayless. He received the ball and brought the ball down. 

I kept up with him as he set up one man that was open for him to get the layer to get the first point. We got back on offense as I brought down the ball. I saw McGee shouting for the ball but I didn't pass it to him. I stepped up to the three-point line where Bayless was checking me and I took the shot giving us three points and the lead.

Everybody there was cheering, the other team was shocked and my teammates were also shocked because they never saw me take a shot during practice runs. They wondered what had changed in me but before they could ask I was already playing defense on the other end as Bayless had already dashed off to try to steal one quick bucket but I was able to stop him.

Time Freeze!

The crowd went wild again as Bayless was still confused about what had happened but couldn't do anything about it. He had to keep playing the game, we continued on as we went back and forth after that. This time around I started to pass the ball. I just wanted to get a good lead in front of them before I took my time and let others have at it.

By halftime, we were up by 20 points and Portland had given up at this point so there was no need for me to continue playing as I went to the bench.

The coach was extremely happy with our play and had a lot of respect for me at this point. I told him I was going to rest up while the others get to play so he shouldn't worry about me, his eyes glowed as he said you are the real deal my guy and I will support you no matter what, I know the head coach might give you some problems in the future but I'll try to talk to him to give you more minutes once the regular season comes up.

I wondered why he said that it seems like the head coach had a problem with rookies, he didn't like to play or give them many minutes due to them being rookies. He always had a saying that they always had to have experience at least two to three years before they can continue to get more minutes. He bȧrėly plays them at least one or two minutes at most, he would give them.

If he gave me only one to two minutes a game this would really hurt my stock market and it would be extremely hard to get noticed but then again 1 or 2 minutes is all I needed as long as my time stopped ability worked I would able to come back from any bad scores.

We ended up beating them by 15 points as the game finally ended, I didn't play during the second quarter but the others were able to hold it down without me being in the game as I gave them a 20-point lead. 

After the game they wanted to celebrate but I wasn't interested we had a game the next day so I just wanted to go relax and call my girls up to see how they're doing. I still haven't heard from the Paige I wanted to go check up on her once the summer league was over and I had free time.

I went on ESPN to see whether they had something to say about my first day in the summer league and they had quite a lot to say, talking about how I was the best and I was living up to my name. They showed a few highlights especially when I first came in on the first play where I just walked up to the defender and shot the three and even the runner up three-pointer that has I had shot had been number one on the top 10 plays.

I was proud and couldn't wait for the NBA to start, playing against these younger boys was nothing but child's play. I wanted to play against Iverson, Kobe and many of the other greats.