June 6 - Game 1 - Home vs. Bullet Train

I got a call from Phenom on Sunday afternoon:

"Hey man, I decided to go ahead and schedule our first game for tomorrow, at around 5, so you might want to make sure you're ready and have the uniforms and stuff ready. I gotta go, peace." Wow... thanks for letting me get a word in, Phenom.

With this knowledge, I decided to go and practice at Deer Run with Like Mike and Zack Attack for the rest of Sunday. We worked specifically on scoring and passing, mainly in-lane shots, seeing as how Like Mike and Attack were both perimeter shooters and passers. Being able to fake a pass, fake a shot, then drive hard in and put in a nice lay-up or easy dunk. Attack worked on his vertical and power dunks, but his biggest improvement was his maneuverable lay-ups and easy, efficient dunks. Like Mike ALSO worked on his vertical, seeing as how he's 4-8, and also worked and perfected a nice signature move: a mid-drive stop-and-shoot floater that elevated over everyone's heads, and sank most of the time.

The day of the game, I slept in a couple extra hours (about nine-thirty, seeing as how I wake up at about seven). After I woke up, I ate a bowl of granola with apple juice poured on top, a glass of milk, two pieces of toast, and piece of string cheese. Yes, it's weird, but the string cheese is a superstition. Then, I meditated to achieve a deep focus, which I used to watch my best AND-1 videos, and my "100 Greatest NBA Plays" DVD. I watched all of them twice, to improve the emphasis, and then ate another piece of string cheese, while doing some rhythmic breathing. Then, I stretched for a half hour, and went outside and practiced for an hour. Then, I came back inside, showered, did some more focusing and finally reached a sort of "basketball Nirvana", reaching the top of my focus and becoming one with my abilities. I could only hope that all our ballers were working at least half as much as I was. Otherwise, we could have some troubles.

I left for Deer Run with Attack and Like Mike at four o' clock. When we got there, we did some team practices and drills, but as we neared game time, we realized a problem. Birdie showed up a little late, and informed us of some EXTREMELY bad news. Seeing as how Jumpin' Jax and Prince James were roommates, and Jumpin' Jax was graduating as a junior, he had to move for college, and he was moving in at Prince James' fraternity, therefore pulling them from the team. Also, Reign Man recently informed us that he moved to a nearby urban area, Columbus. Something about taking care of his son. I didn't know he existed. He said he'd stop by occasionally, but as a spectator only, not playing. He will be wearing his uniform, and may be recognized before each game he's at. But, all three players' numbers and jerseys will be retired on a large extra piece of plywood, with their names and numbers on it.

So all-in-all, we had to start without two of our all-stars and one of our highflyers. This was going to be grrreat...

The Revolution:
Starting 5:
Ce: Levi "Unstoppable" Law
PF: Ethan "Phenom" Scott
SF: Tyler "Matrix" Margison
SG: Zack "Attack" Stant
PG: Jacob "Like Mike" Percifield
Bench:
Zach "Birdie" Walker
Miles "Kid Kobe" Lane
Austin "Scarecrow" Martin
Kenny "Most Known Thug" Baker
Wraythe "Dubz" Parker

Bullet Train:
Starting 5:
Ce: Caleb "White Shaq" Joy
PF: Josh "Kong" Smith
SF: Paul "Paul Wall" Risley
SG: Zeb "Z-Mac" McHale
PG: Logan "The Punisher" Snider
Bench:
Seth "inVincable" Mitchell
Darryl "Double-D" Davis
Nate " Nasty Nate AKA Boomerang" Isley

It was our largest crowd yet. Especially seeing as how it was opening day and we needed people for score- and time-keeping. There were about four- or five-dozen people there, not counting the two people we pulled for referee positions (Zach Margison, my brother, and Gabe Stant, Zack Attack's brother), the two we pulled for score-keeping (Danny and Andrew McMasters, siblings), the one we took for game-time-keeping (Nick Coleman), and one for shot-clock time-keeping (Mitch Coleman, twin brother).

Zach set us up for the tip-off, between Phenom and White Shaq. Everyone shook hands. We were wearing our white jerseys, with green lettering and black outline, and they were wearing dark gray ("silver") jerseys with white lettering and blue outline. The jump ball came, and White Shaq, being considerably taller than Phenom, got the ball off the jump and gave it to Punisher. Game starts.

Before, it was allll about fun, and nobody cared who won or whatever. It was about the highlights. But because someone decided to make a huge deal out of it, it was about winning. At least, for most it was. The originals (all of The Revolution, Paul Wall, Punisher, Boomerang, and some others from other teams) still played for fun.... their teammates were too busy looking at the W's and L's.

So the game starts, and Punisher brings up the ball. He got it to the perimeter, and set up to shoot, right over Like Mike. He faked it, and passed it right down to White Shaq, who backed up against Unstoppable. There's a reason we call him that. WS turned around to put up a dunk or a lay-up or something. We'll never know, because as soon as he turned and put the ball in the air, Unstoppable jumped high and slammed it down to the ground, causing it to bounce up into the air. The ball was grabbed by Phenom, who passed to Zack Attack, who saw Like Mike driving in. He went for the alley-oop, but the ball was touched on gently by Z-Mac. Just the little bit of indifference caused the ball to spin out of it's original trajectory, but that didn't stop Like Mike. It was a lot closer to him than he expected, but he continued to jump up, grab it, then avoid the Kong-block by going up-and-under to the other side of the goal and laying it up on the other side. First blood spilled by LM, two-to-nothing.

A few plays later, Like Mike made a nice impression. Punisher went for a pass from the top of the key to Kong at the mid-left corner. LM was at the right corner, and sprinted toward the ball when he saw it being passed, and got it right in mid-air. He continued with his sprint up the field, on the right baseline. Seeing Phenom approaching the same distance on the left baseline, and noticing Paul WAll between the two of them, Like Mike decided to use this to his advantage. As soon as they got inside the lane, Like Mike jumped to fake a lean-in lay-up, and instead, popped it right up, and across the lane. As it went up, it was moving out of the lane, and Phenom jumped and put his hand on the back of the ball, causing it to stop moving. He was moving into the lane diagonally. He caught the ball with his hand on the back, then moved his hand (and the ball) so that his hand was on the side of the ball. Then, he turned so he was right in front of the goal, and slammed it down hard, right on top of Paul Wall.

With a minute and a half until half-time, we were leading, 59-51. I was playing the crowd a lot, and totally schooling the hell out of Double-D. He thought he could take me. Instead, I bounced it off his head twice in a row before he ran up on me and pushed me over. So, as I was falling, I kicked the back of his knees, causing him to fall over. We were both knocked with technical fouls, and no shots were taken. We had a jump ball to decide possession, and inVincable won. He brought it up the court, and he was being triple-teamed by Zack Attack, Dubz, and I. Dubz finally got the ball from him, and he fell over in bewilderment. Dubz went running up the court on the left baseline, realized he was being followed by Attack and I, and he bounced it hard off the left side of the glass, slamming his hand off the backboard. Then, Attack approached on the left baseline, grabbed the ball, then floated to the other side, and bounced it off the other side of the glass, almost falling over by doing so. Then, I came up the middle of the lane, jumped, and caught the ball as it started to drift to the right. With my arm outstretched, holding the ball, I drifted underneath the hoop, and slammed it right over my head, ending the three-way alley-oop. It was the first one we'd ever done, and tonight, it wouldn't be the last.

We started half-time with the score at 63-54. During half-time, we had a slam dunk show-off. Not necessarily a contest of any sort, just a few people showing off some dunks that we know after resting. It was me, Phenom, Kid Kobe, Boomerang, Z-Mac, and inVincable.

We all kind of stood in a cluster, and we each had a basketball, except for Z-Mac, who had two. I went first, and started with an off-the-glass one-handed elbow-hang dunk. Everyone jumped around for it, clapped, cheered, etc. Z-Mac went next, did a 360, and slammed both balls after he finished spinning. Everyone jumped out their seats for that one, seeing as how it had never been done anywhere else by anyone else. Next, Boomerang came up. I was surprised. Instead of doing his signature dunk, he started from full court, ran down-court, jumped at least a full step outside the free-throw line, put the ball between his legs, and slammed it easily. Everyone found this quite interesting, and called him the "next James White".

Following Boomerang's spectacular dunk, Phenom went. He walked up to the goal and looked at it suspiciously. Then, he stepped back carefully to the mid-court line. He then ran toward the goal, bounced it off the glass, put it between his legs, then ended with a honeydip. He dropped to the ground, threw his jersey off, slammed his fists on his chest and screamed a manly roar as everyone stormed onto the court, and a small child jumped onto his back. Had it been a dunk contest, that probably would have won it all.

Kid Kobe went next. He set the ball several feet in front of the goal. He ran up, did a cartwheel, grabbed the ball when his hands were on the ground, touched the ground just long enough to jump again, then windmilled it home. The crowd cheered, and he waved. Finally, inVincable came and did a double honeydip, with both arms. Everyone jumped out of their seats (not literally, there aren't really seats) and congratulated him nicely.

Second time around, there wasn't much interest for a couple of them. Z-Mac did an off-the-glass one-handed tomahawk from way back, and slammed it down hard, with his head almost at rim level. Boomerang did his normal 360 between-the-legs, and got some decent applause. Phenom approached the goal and did something nobody had seen in America. He did a double windmill. He cradled the ball and swung it clockwise twice before slamming it hard through the circle. Once again, people were all over him. Kid Kobe got me to throw an alley-oop from the three-point line, where he did a 360, caught it after spinning, then windmilled it home. I approached from full-court, jumped a step inside the line, and did a two-handed 360 slam, my secondary signature dunk.

Finally, inVincable then went and did the craziest dunk ever. He approached the goal with the ball in his right hand. He jumped off both legs, cupped the ball in his right, and started to put it behind his back. But, instead of doing so and dunking with his left, he touched the ball with his left, behind his back, then reached back around with his right, and finished the dunk. Everyone lost it and ran onto the court to escort him off on their shoulders. As they did so, the crowd reformed outside the court, and the teams had started practicing again.

Starting with a line-up of Phenom, Zack Attack, Scarecrow, Birdie, and I, we did quite well in the second half. In a fast break move, I brought the ball up the right baseline. I threw an alley-oop to the rim, which was caught by Birdie, who realized he wasn't going to be able to finish it, and threw it up and behind him. Zack Attack grabbed the ball and was about to dunk it, but accidentally plowed over inVincable, sending the ball bouncing off the back of the rim. Thinking the play was over, everyone stopped, but the cool-headed Scarecrow approached fast, jumped over the lying bodies of Attack, Birdie, and inVincable, and caught the ball with one hand. He then lifted his legs up, cocked his arm back, and slammed the whole thing down, hanging from the rim with one hand, to keep from falling onto his comrades and opponent.

A couple minutes later (score: 81-77), Kong and White Shaq were both out at the time, and everyone actually had to pay attention to the post. So, while the ball was in Nasty Nate's hands, and he was attempting to put in a simple lay-up, and all of Bullet Train and Birdie, Kid Kobe, Dubz, and I were all in the paint, attempting to get the rebound. Phenom was outside the key, waiting to see what happened. Finally, I jumped high enough and grabbed the ball myself, turning in mid-air to throw it to Phenom. Phenom got it and ran up the left baseline. Knowing he was alone, he approached quickly, jumped off one leg, and did something amazing. He put the ball behind his back, from right hand to left, and then, brought the rock in front of him, grabbed it with two hands, raised it above his head, and dunked it, landing on the ground and celebrating by picking up the ball and bouncing it hard on the ground. The crowd went wild.

With sixty seconds left on the clock, we managed to get possession a total of three times off of steals, all except one ending with me making the point. First, Zack Attack stole it from Punisher when he tried to throw the rock over his head. He and I came running up on opposite sides of the lane, and we passed the ball back and forth playfully as we came up the court, then he jumped, put the ball between his legs, and threw an alley-oop to me. I caught the ball as it was just about out of reach, with both my hands, pulled back the ball, almost touching my shoulder blades, and lifting my legs up for effect. Then, I finally uncoiled myself and slammed it down hard through the rim.

Then, the next play, Dubz stole the inbound pass, while I was still on the down court. He jumped as it was in the air, toward the out-of-bounds line, grabbed the ball in mid-air, hit the ground, jumped again and threw the ball toward the rim. The ball was about four feet from the rim. So I ran up from the left corner, jumped in between the goal and the rock, reached way back and grabbed the ball, then reached forward and dunked it, pulling hard on the rim to add effect.

The third happened after two fast possessions. With about thirty seconds left, inVincable tried to dunk and I got on him fast and blocked it hard against the glass. Phenom got the rebound and threw it downcourt to Like Mike, who approached the goal, bounced the ball in front of the goal, and stood still in front of the ball's trajectory. Then, Most Known Thug ran up to the goal and jumped from in front of LM and grabbed the ball. He pulled his hand back after he grabbed the ball, and soared right over Like Mike. Then, MKT surprised us all by soaring further to the goal with one hand up, then grabbing it with two, pulling it to his back, and slamming it down hard, to end the game. The final score was 96-84. I guess the Bullet Trains didn't take the game very seriously, did they?

Our next game will be soon, I just have to make time around work and high school summer basketball practice. I'm almost going to feel bad playing this next team. It's an away game against the Brown County Ballers from the Artist's Drive Courts. They're just a bunch of cocky kids that think they can play ball. They honestly are constantly saying they "schooled someone", when, in fact, they got their asses taken down to Chinatown. I guess I can look forward to hearing them brag about "how good they were", and then be able to go "Oh yeah, I believe this says you're record is 0-15". So yeah, that'll be cool.

Look out Artist's Drive BC Ballers, we're comin' to get ya'!