Desire Part IV

Tweet James sprinted over to the man Tommy was guarding and took a deep breath and wiped his palms on his shorts, his heart was racing and he was overwhelmed with emotion but knew he had to settle down quickly.  He stole a glance at the scoreboard (Visitor: 45 Panthers: 32) right before Summer-side in-bounded the ball and knew that a win was unlikely.  James quickly forgot everything he was thinking when his man caught the ball and instinct took over. He let the defender get a step but James quickly shuffled his feet forcing the defender to pick up the ball in the corner, after a few seconds of pressure he reached in and almost swore at himself when he heard the whistle.  The sound of coach O'Brien yelling good job surprised him, he turned to look at the ref who had signaled a traveling violation.  A wave of relief washed over James followed by a smile 'this is easy' he thought to himself.   

"Run flex!" the voice belonged to Jamie who was in the game at the point, this was the only play James knew and ran to the top of the key as Jamie drifted to the left side of the court.  'Flex' was essentially a baseline cut by the shooting guard using a screen set by the power forward on the baseline three point line.  As the cut was made the point guard that drifted to the left would fire a pass to the top of the key and then if the cut was open, the forward at the top would feed the cutter.  This is exactly what happened as James fed a player he only knew as 'Jimmy'.  Catching the ball in stride and converting the lay-up Jimmy turned and pointed at James, a quick way of saying 'nice pass', the score was now 45-34 with about 4 minutes to play in the third quarter. The two teams exchanged baskets for the next two minutes, a streak that was broken by a steal and a fast break lay-up by James to make it 49-40.  After another defensive stop James was fed on a cut to the hoop, took the contact and threw a prayer that somehow went in at the buzzer.  He walked over to the line and sunk the free-throw to cut Summer-side's lead to only 6 with a full quarter to play.  When he jogged over to the bench he was greeted positively by all of his team-mates including Tommy who high-fived him without making eye contact.  "Just keep running the offense and keep it simple guys!" coach O'Brien reminded the team as they went back on the court.  James went over to inbound the ball to the starting point-guard who's name he did not know.  On his way he noticed Summer-side pushing up in an attempt to press, as he walked by Tommy he told him "Run" and took the ball from the ref.  Standing on the sidelines, coach O'Brien cursed at himself for not talking to James about their press-break.  Just as he turned to call in a player who knew what to run the roar of the suddenly loud home crowd turned him back to where the action was.  Tommy, catching a beautiful pass in stride and with one step going up and finishing a lay up while being dragged down by a defender. Coach looked at the ref who nodded his head and enthusiastically signaled for an and-one. Satisfied, coach turned to the baseline where the pass came from and forgot about substituting James "Do that everytime!" coach yelled to him, the first time he smiled in three weeks.  

The Panthers played with incredible energy in the fourth and went up by two points when James faked a pass that threw the entire defense off enabling him to drain an easy 15-footer with a minute and a half left. After a defensive stop James corralled the rebound and dribbled into the front-court, he looked to his right and threw a pass to Tommy who was isolated on the right side against a Summer side defender. Tommy took a hard dribble into the paint and stopped on a dime.  He rose for a jumper that looked good until it hit the back rim and popped out.  Anticipating a miss, James leaped for the rebound before anyone else did, he caught it, and fired a pass back to Tommy who had followed his shot.  The crowd exploded as Tommy laid it in extending the lead to 62-57 with :48 seconds remaining in the game.  The Panthers would take care of business at the free-throw line and were now 2-7. For once, the post-game locker room talk was positive and the team looked rejuvenated.  The older players congratulated Tommy on being the leading scorer, but coach O'Brien knew why they won the game.  As the players exited he made sure to find James before he left and told him "I expect much more from you, I am making you the sixth man, do not disappoint me".  He knew that this should be enough to keep James motivated, he did not seem bothered by Tommy getting most of the credit and this pleased coach O'Brien, he needed players like James.

"Hey who was that #12 player?" the question snapped Tommy out of it "Some new kid, he just got onto the team" Tommy said to his father who was in the drivers seat. "I liked what he did, he is really smart for a player his age" Tommy did his best to hide his irritation, his dad did not even say a word to him about his performance yet, he just kept talking about James as if he did anything special. "Yeah, he was OK I guess" Tommy said trying to get past this subject.  "You are aware that you would not have led all scorers if it wasn't for him right?" "What do you mean?!" Tommy snapped back, he couldn't help it. Mr. Johnson just smiled at his son forgiving him the outburst. "Tommy, you know I've told you a million times that you have not mastered the qualities of a winner yet, and this is another example of it" Tommy sighed, he hated when his dad told him this, he always gave some obscure and ambiguous examples of what a winner was supposed to be but Tommy could care less.  In his mind he was easily the best player on the Jr. team now that Michael was out for the year and felt that his teammates were not stepping up how they should be. "Forget it, the team gave me support today and we were able to win, you think we would have done anything without my 21 points?" Tommy looked over at Mr. Johnson who just smiled and replied: "There was only one thing different about this team from the one that lost the last 6 games" he paused for dramatic effect, and also to allow his son to see what he was getting at.  Although Tommy knew exactly what his dad wanted him to say he refused to give him the satisfaction.

Coach O'Brien popped in the game tape that one of the students he hired had given him at the end of the game.  Being thorough was his motto and he often had two students film all of the Panthers home games in return for a credit in Gym or some cash.  No one ever took the credit.  He went over the game paying careful attention to the games last 14 minutes jotting down notes.  Mike O'Brien hated looking at stats because he knew that they could be misleading, but glancing at James Miller's 9-point (on perfect shooting from the field), 5-assist, 4-rebound, and 2-steal performance (not to mention the other turnovers he caused, 2 forced travels and pressure that enabled a teammate to get the steal) he knew that nothing about these numbers was a lie. He rewound to the key play, James' rebound and pass to Tommy for the lay up and something caught his attention.  Coach O'Brien decided to look at all of James's assists and found that 4 out of the 5 were to Tommy. Coach flipped back to his playbook and took a look at some plays, then he grabbed some of his coaching books, it was time to alter the playbook.