2 minutes at the game.

What's wrong with him? He's been making a lot of mistakes since the game started. Mike was giving a deep stare at John while dribbling the ball and scanning the field for a possible Assist.

John noticed Mike's stare and just gave him a stiff smile.

Now, he's giving me that "what's wrong with you" look and it's because I'm so damn nervous! John was cursing in his mind in daze and didn't notice that the ball was flying towards him.

Pak~!

Oww, that fucking hurts! John cursed while holding his face and then he saw Mike walking towards with a menacing look and grimace at it.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so" John was giving a bitter laugh when he noticed his voice being serious.

Then he saw Mike suddenly smiled and clasp both his shoulders and gave it both a good slap.

Paik~!

John gritted his teeth when he felt the pain coming from both his shoulders.

"Come on, it's just a game so get your shit together and it's not like someone is trying ko kill you here" Mike suddenly yelled at him.

John was dumbfounded from his yell and then he looked at the others, who was also looking at him as they gave him a small nod.

Dammit, they already noticed that I was nervous but didn't say anything, they're good people. John thought when he realized that and didn't notice that his body is already starting to relax from nervousness.

"Yeah, sorry about that"

"Alright! Get into defence then and make sure they don't get another basket!" Yelled Mike while clapping loudly.

John nodded then went infront of Calvin then took a defensive instance.

"You good?" said Calvin with a bit of playfulness in his voice.

"Yep, thanks" John replied with a smile.

John was trying to keep up with Calvin who's trying to get pass while also keeping an eye to Mike and Blake who's having a stand-off.

Blake caught the ball from Dixon then made his body slightly bent forward.

"Keep up little bro"

“Hmmp” Mike snorted in reply.

Blake smiled instead and suddenly did a Hesitation in which Mike reacted to it.

“Tsk” clicked Mike.

Blake did another to his left but this time suddenly made a spin move to the right and executed a fade away jump shot.

Even though this happened in the span of a second, Mike was still able to keep up with his brother as he also jumped a little bit later trying to block the ball.

“Come on!” shouted Mike and luckily the tip of his middle finger was able to manage the ball and Blake’s eye twitch when he saw.

“Rebound!” Blake immediately yelled when his feet touched the ground but he was immediately dumbfounded of what he saw.

John immediately rushed below the basket at the same time when the ball was released. He was able to calculate that Mike would be able to block or at least touch the ball, that’s the reason why he abandoned his post and went for the rebound instead.

“Haaa!”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

John landed on the ground, gripping the ball and immediately dribbled outside the 3-point line.

“Nice Rebound”

John dribbled a bit and passed the ball to Brian and made a dash towards the ring then he jumped and caught the alley-oop pass from Brian.

Bang!

I never thought the day would come when I’ll be able to do a alley-oop! John was smiling widely as he got down from the ring.

“Nice Dunk”

“Nice Pass”

Both Brian and John smiled as they gave each other a high five.

“Great, now we are one point ahead” Mike said as he approached both of them.

“Yeah” both Brian and John said at the same time.

“I never thought you could play that good when you’re finally not nervous, especially that rebound. It was awesome..” Mike was giving a lot of praise to John that even made him embarrased hearing it.

“Hey! Are we gonna play or are you guys just gonna keep talking there? They heard Dixon shouting at them which they immediately run back to their positions.

John was moving towards Calvin when he noticed Blake giving him another smile but this time, it sent a shiver down in his spine.

What was that smile? Scary. John thought but outside, he just smiled rigidly towards him.

The game resumed as Blake’s team took another point and the same goes for John’s team. The game was starting to get heated as both teams are not allowing each other to easily score, especially as a crowd is starting to gather around them, cheering.

Waaaaaa! The crowd was shouting and yelling as Blake performed a Double Clutch dunk.

What’s with this crowd?Seriously! John still can’t get used with the crowd’s shouting. He really doesn’t know why a large crowd started watching them and yelling when one of them successfully made a basket. Especially Mike’s girlfriend who really yells the loudest, like she’s on a fish market trying to attract some customers to buy her produce.

“Dammit, we’re tied” complained Mike because he wasn’t able to prevent Blake from scoring.

“It’s our ball and this is the match point. Let’s just make sure the ball gets in” John said trying to comfort Mike.

Man, these two brothers are really competitive. John shook his head as he started dribbling.

“Okay, let’s win this game” John proclaimed while rising a finger.

John move towards Mike and passed the ball you him simultaneously giving him a screen.

It would have been a perfect pick n roll if John had been able to get pass Dixon’s defence.

The switch between defenders was so fast that John and the others were caught off guard. It was when John tried to move towards the basket for the pass but there was already someone defending him infront, it was Dixon who was supposed to be guarding Brian instead of him and when he looked at the others. Mike was already being defended by his brother and Calvin was guarding Brian instead.

Damn. John cursed and instead went around Mike and took the ball from him.

"Ok, one more time!" John yelled towards the others.

John started dribbling between his legs. He was looking for a way to get pass Dixon's defence and he saw Brian coming towards and pass the ball to him. They started passing between the 3 of them trying to get pass their oppenents defence.

What's with these guys? Their defence suddenly got tight, were they just playing earlier or is it because this is a match point? John thought when he saw their opponents became like a different person.

Mike did a jump pass towards John, who immediately caught it. "Damn, let's try that ankle breaker i did when i was practicing" John was staring at Dixon straight in his eyes, both of them are practically glaring at each other.

John smiled widely towards Dixon which made him feel suddenly uncomfortable and then he saw John trying to shoot.

"Is it real or just fake?" Dixon was asking himself but he already made a quick decision because he saw John trying to shoot for real and he instictively jumped planning to block it ahead.

"Shit! F*ck! I got had" Dixon cursed in his mind because it was a fake, a pump fake.

John was delighted because he was able to fool Dixon and he immediately jumped also performing a double clutch dunk like Blake did but he was suddenly shocked because someone suddenly appeared infront of him and one of his hand was clutching the ball on his hand.

"It's Blake, how!?" John yelled inside when he saw the person infront of him.

In the eyes of the spectators, it was like the time froze as they dumbfoundedly looked at the two people in mid-air, One was trying to get the ball in the basket while the other one is trying to prevent it and they saw that one of them was overpowered and landed on his butt, luckily he was able to catch himself and lessened the impact.

In a stroke of luck, that person's teammate was able to catch the ball and performed a fade away jump shot that made the winning shot.

"Dammmit, I got too overconfident because I was playing well and tried to overpower him" John sighed as he realized that he forgot that he was playing with people who was more experienced than him.

Waaaaahhhhh!

"That was awesome! It was like I was watching NBA!"

"That mid-air battle was so f*cking awesome!"

"I got the chills when i saw that!"

"What a heart stopping moment! It just made my day!"

People was shouting and yelling that made John startled that he immediately stood up.

"You did good" he heard Blake's voice beside him.

"I did?"

"Yeah, just look at the crowd their screaming and the talk about what happened earlier, it means you did good, maybe even too good" Blake sincerely smiled when he said that.

John was looking at the crowd of noisy people who are talking about what happened earlier and it made his body tremble in excitement. So this is what i want all along, the crowd, the cheering, the bubbling excitement, the heart stopping moments, those amazing plays, those adorring eyes and suppassing even the Legends that I look up to and finally, become the greatest Athlete in Sports History.

To become the best in the world!