3. FIRST STEP(4)

March 18, 2012. Ogden, Utah. Kingston Drive.

"Ahhhh."

Anna let out a disappointed sigh. She stepped out because of her frustration. Probably to take another cigarette break.

The rest of us, David and me, quietly looked at the monitor.

.

.

.

SECOND HALF

WSU 52 VS 58 LMU

.

.

.

"They just won't loosen up, huh?"

"…"

"Oh, right!"

I have to get what I deserve.

I put my palm out as David put a 5-dollar bill on top of it. He subconsciously used Korean instead of English. Since it was much more natural for David to use English compared to me, he had to give me 5 dollars whenever he slipped.

It felt good to put the money in my pocket, but I wasn't exactly happy at the moment.

"Without Lillard or Davion, the gap was quite big."

I thought the same.

3 days ago, the WSU players took a bus to California for dozens of hours. The post-season 2nd round was against Loyola Marymount.

Loyola Marymount was a West Coast Conference mid-major team, which meant they were a division higher than us.

Saint Mary, Gonzaga, and Brigham Young are all part of the WCC.

Amongst these teams, Marymount was the 4th best team.

"Even if it were just Leon, they'd be able to be the better team."

"It is quite amazing. Who would've known Artemis would've been this slow?"

"That's just the difference in level, Minhyuk. You can really tell who the best players are when matched against higher leveled opponents. NBA scouts realize this as well."

Today, Artemis McRae seemed to play worse than an average player.

Not only was he in bad condition, but Ashley Hamilton was completely shutting down his offensive plays.

As the second half of the game unfolded, out of the 12 shots Artemis took, he was only able to make 2 of them. I was sure he was going be extremely frustrated because of today's game.

"But, David."

"Hmm?"

"That player, Ashley Hamilton. What's his evaluation scores like?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, does he have what it takes to play in the NBA?"

David gave me a strange look and burst out into laughter.

Did I say something wrong?

"Hahaha. No, not at all. Ashley Hamilton doesn't even have a 1% chance to run in the NBA."

"Not even 1%?"

"Maybe 0.000001%? Why?"

"No, it's nothing."

That meant someone with his defensive skills can't make the cut for the NBA. Of course, it may be because McRae's offensive game was trash right now. If you think about it, the kids who thought were good in middle school turned out to be weak in high school.

Ah! It makes sense now. I can somewhat understand what David was saying. When playing against a team that's at a higher level, the one that stood out will survive.

So, in the end, it's the survival of the fittest.

It meant whoever had more potential and whoever could use their potential more quickly will triumph. When you think about it like that, I am curious. Do I have what it takes to survive?

I sure hope so.

"Darn! Looks like Davion fouled."

"That's gonna make it tough."

As Davion Berry ran back to the bench, him and Stanley exchanged gloomy looks.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

END GAME RESULTS

WSU 78 (L:W) 84 LMU

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

March 26, 2012. Ogden, Utah. Harrison Blvd. Weber State University. Dee Events Center

Due to their loss against Loyola Marymount, WSU's 2011-2012 season came to an end.

That meant WSU was not able to take a title through March Madness, or the post-season games. As Stanley and the team returned to Ogden, he gave them a break. After a week went by, they were right back to it.

Today was also the first day I officially practiced with WSU. For some reason, I had a good feeling about today.

"Lillard and the other seniors won't have much time to attend as many practices."

"Yeah?"

"Yep. Lillard needs to be careful with his injury. The other players need to live their lives as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they won't be able to join the NBA."

"…"

Every year, the NBA drafted 60 players from 250-300 different players. The reason the numbers weren't bigger was that many players felt it was a waste of time to even try.

If a player wanted to continue playing, they'd either join an amateur league or join a street team like Freddy's.

If not, they would go back to studying. Since most of them knew their strengths and weaknesses, they steadily took their classes and earned their certificates with high scores.

"What about you?"

I asked Leon out of curiosity, he was still using crutches.

"Hmm, good question. For now, I'm always trying to get high grades."

"What about the NBA?"

"Think about the likelihood, around 20%?"

"That's it?"

"Haha. I think that's even higher than I'd expect. If you're lucky, you could keep climbing after joining the D-League. But the D-League alone isn't easy as well. I'm a realist, my friend. I don't want to put my girlfriend or future wife through a hard time."

So, Leon was thinking about working for the shipping trade. His father was running a famous shipping company called Georgia, so he was planning to join the family business.

His father utilized a modern system, with ambitions to grow his company to be one of the best. Of course, if he was scouted by the NBA, the situation will change a bit.

"It's too far in the future, buddy. I told you, you think too much sometimes."

"Haha. I hear that quite often."

"Nothing good comes from thinking too much on the court. You need to keep your head clear as much as possible when playing, but it's okay if you don't afterward."

As Leon and I conversed while he was stretching, we saw the doors open and Stanley walked in.

For the past few days, since we were eliminated from the post-season tournament, Stanley had been drinking a lot and was very depressed, but today, he seemed to be back to his normal self. And the 11 players that will be graduating soon joined us for practice today.

I will be playing with the other recruited players after the vacation in July. So, I was the only new face in the court today.

"There's no need to do introductions, right? Minhyuk will be practicing with us starting today."

"…"

As I tried to exchange looks with the players, Davion Berry smiled and put his fist out. As always, he tried to help me out and we exchanged friendly greetings.

As Colin saw us fist bump and embrace, he showed a big smile.

"Although it was a bit of a disappointing end to our season, we all did our best. Next year, we will be a completely different team. You guys have to fill in the empty spot that Lillard once was in. So, let's start with a fresh mindset. Everyone, gather around."

"Is it one, two, three, wildcats again?"

"Of course."

Since I've already done this in the past, putting my hands in with the WSU players wasn't new.

"Good. One. Two. Three!"

"Wild C- wait, what?"

As my hand went upward, my body started to fall forward.

That was because everyone's hands were pushing me down. All the WSU players used their knees to pin me down on the floor. It didn't hurt, but I was a bit startled.

"Huh?"

But wait, Colin's pushing me down too?

I looked through my arms as I guarded my face and saw that Colin was very entertained about this situation.

Hold on!

++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Sorry, that was actually Stanley's idea."

"Shut up!"

As Davion tried to joke around with me, I pushed him away. As I was running with a pouty expression on my face, players one by one would come by to apologize. Honestly, I didn't really feel that bad.

It seemed they were comfortable and viewed me as a friend.

I have faced a few racist events, but I've never really felt uncomfortable.

"Alright! Everyone, come gather for a minute!"

The training here was almost the same as the ones in Korea.

The method was a bit different, but we started by stretching and running. Only as we started our circuit training did I notice a difference.

Up until this point, I've been running without a starting position, but not now.

"Now, ready!"

I pointed my body in the direction I wanted to run, then I lowered my body down to the ground.

"Go!"

As Colin and WSU's coach Tim Brennan sent the signal, I sprinted toward the goal at the opposite end. Colin and Jason were there with a stopwatch to see how fast we were.

Jason Dolan was among the WSU coaching staff.

"Nice! Not bad?"

It would've been nice if he told me how fast I was, but he simply wrote it down on a memo pad. According to Laron Armstrong, once practice was over we could find it posted in the locker room.

It was as if we were looking at test results.

After running circuits like this for about 10 more times, we began agility drills. This is where we would run from the free-throw line to the baseline as fast as we could.

However, instead of running as normal, we used sideways running.

This exercise trained our lane agility, which trained one's ability to change direction quickly.

"Good, next!"

"…"

Again?

Another thing that was different from Korea was the fact that we did this exercise 10 times more here. As we finished off these exercises, my legs started to feel weak and tired.

Although I've been running and doing weight training, this was the first real practice that I was able to do since I played for the International team.

"Whew, I feel like dying."

Without me noticing, I started to complain.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

The practice that started at 7 A.M. concluded at 8:30 A.M.

In that short time, we were able to do a high intensity work-out. As we finished, I laid flat on the court. Davion and Leon immediately headed to the shower rooms since they had to head to classes.

After our 4 P.M. classes were over, we began our afternoon training.

"How do you feel about participating in training?"

"Heh. Erm. It's was alright."

"Hahaha. You don't look alright!"

As Colin fell to the ground laughing, he threw me a question.

"Okay. Have you felt any differences lately?"

"A little. Very little."

I struggled to gasp for air.

I wish he would try to talk to me a little later. After the agility training was finished, we did training in each position. Since I wasn't given a position yet, I stuck to doing basic training.

Gripping the ball and jumping, sideways running, running and jumping in the same position, or doing suicides.

It was fun since it was a new type of training for me, but it was extremely tiring.

"Haha. Well, that's a relief. It may be difficult, but could you tell me what that is? In simple terms."

Simple terms? That should be easy.

"De- *gasp* defense. Yeah, defense."

"Defense? Wow! That's not what I expected to hear. I honestly thought you'd say shooting."

"Did I have the wrong idea?"

"Wrong? No, not at all! In fact, that's perfect. It's amazing."

As Colin nodded his head in approval, he seemed to view me as a kid he was excited to train. My current skills and levels of play didn't really matter, but rather, it was all about how much I'll be able to grow and improve in the 4 years I am here.

Damian Lillard did not get any recognition during his high school years, but thanks to the coaching staff of WSU, he was now an NBA-level player.

"Ever since you arrived, Stanley told me to study and do research about Asian basketball. So, I watched a few tournaments and games through the internet."

"Hahaha."

I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was going.

"Honesty, the level is a bit lower. I could've mistaken a college game for a high school game. I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend you."

"No, it's okay."

"Haha. That's a relief. Anyways, the thing I was worried about the most was their defense. Here in the States, if you're not able to defend against the many different styles, you'll end up on the bench."

If I followed the current trend of American basketball, a very important role in the defensive side as the game evolves was hand checking.

Hand checking was where a player would obstruct the offensive player's hands, which was no longer allowed. NBA old-fans felt that the current state of the NBA was too soft.

On the other hand, by limiting the use of your hands, it opened a door to other ways of playing defensively.

"3&D. That's the direction you need to go in. That's where we'll build you up in."

"A lot of people have been telling me that."

"Really? That's probably because most people realize that's the best way you can go?"

That's probably true.

"I also really like you. Just like Stanley, Leon and Damian says, you seem to be a very clever kid. Stanley also says that you don't easily get pushed around and that you're strong. I like that a lot. If we focus a little more attention to weight training, we won't have to worry about your strength."

"…"

As I had my head laying on the court, I looked up at the ceiling.

Just like Colin said, figuring out which direction I needed to go was in itself a huge advancement. He also said that my opinion of my need to improve in defense was the correct idea.

As I closed my eyes with satisfaction at how the situation unfolded, the first thing I thought of was my family. When I just called last night, my mom tried to act like she was okay when she really missed me.

"Whew."

The moment I opened my eyes, I realized Colin has left the gym.

So, I got up and slowly made my way to the shower rooms. Whenever I felt like I was getting weak, a lot of people stretched their hands out to help me. My friends and families were what keep my mind calm and cool.

My father would always tell me. Instead of thinking of ways to pay back these people, it's more important to always remember how thankful I am to these individuals. So, I've tried my best to live like that.

Because of these people, I can never stop trying my best.