Chapter 5 - Playing the Victim

As I picked our teammates, Mike came to me and said.

"So, how do you want to play this out?"

"Make them cry?" I said jokingly.

"For sure" Mike replied chuckling.

As I said before, almost no one likes the dude we are about to face. His name is Jackson, he is in his late-twenties and 6'2 (~1,87m) feet tall. Every player around the park has had some kind of dispute with him. He is cocky and talks a lot of trash. Which is funny, because his brothers, two guys that we played before, are amazing compared to him. They play clean and quiet, hustling for every possession.

Soon, as we were in the middle of the court, Jackson came to us.

"So... How do you boys want to do it?" He asked, trying to sound cool, I swear he was flexing his muscle while the guy behind him looking like a fight is about to break out.

I looked at Mike and chuckled seeing Jackson trying to scare us. It never happened before, and we just shrugged it off.

"Right, how about 1's and 2's till 21? You and I shoot for the ball." I said.

"Fúck, no. You already got me with that one last time. We are tipping-off, he throws the ball." Jackson said with an ugly face and then pointed to one of the bystanders.

"Sure." Mike chuckled again, ignoring the fact this dude wanted to tip-off in a pickup game.

Jackson hearing his chuckle felt something was wrong, but soon shrugged it off.

As we were about to start, I positioned myself in the middle of the court and waited for their guy to come. Jackson was smiling, thinking he already won, as this guy is a 6'6 (2,01m) guy and I'm shorter, at 6'2.

We prepared to jump and as soon as the guy threw the ball, I jumped. Because the guy was taller, he had an advantage over me and could arrive at the ball faster. So when he touched the ball and was about to tip it over his side, I pushed it from his hands as I was just in time to push it out.

The opposing team was shocked. Having a guy 5 inches (~12cm) taller and still losing the tip-off, they didn't have words. But because he was heavier, my chances also increased.

Jackson was the one to react faster and brought his guys back to the game.

"Damn it. Let's go, bro." He said as he tapped his teammate on his back and yelled at the others.

Soon they ran to play defense, but midst their stupor, Mike was already at the paint and received the pass from me to make the first layup.

Seeing this, Jackson cursed a few times before they came to attack, Mike and I positioned ourselves to play defense. I was playing PF while defending, as we agreed to make them cry. This way I can prevent them from scoring in the paint, and there's also the 6,6 guy who is playing around the same spot.

As for Jackson, he could be a good versatile player if he wasn't so bad at trying too much. He tries to do everything, but almost nothing comes out the right way. The only thing you can say he is good at is his post-fadeaway shots.

Anyway, as they started their attack, the PG, one of the guys that were chosen from the sidelines, passed the ball to Jackson, who was trying to score using his best move. Jackson has always been arrogant, so he always tries to score the first point.

As the douche had his defender in the low post, which was one of the guys we picked from the sidelines, and just a little further away in the wing was Mike and his opponent. Mike tried to double team Jackson, but the latter realized it and tried to pass to Mike's opponent who now was free and about to run towards the basket.

I also noticed the action, and when the ball left Jackson's hands, mine was already in the passing lane to intercept the ball. Running to the other end, I easily scored the uncontested, two-hand dunk.

Jackson grew even more pissed again. And his friends were thinking about what the hell they signed up for. It is the second or third time already that they have been trashed. And the game barely began.

As they got the ball again and went to attack, the opposing PG started to organize their attack, and differently from last time, they truly organized something. It was somewhat beautiful teamwork.

They tried to confuse our defense by doing some rip-off pin-downs and getting away from their defender. I was pushing my teammates around while sticking to the 6'6 guy, the other team couldn't stay in the paint because of me as I would soon cover for my teammates as soon as they got free.

Now, this last part was a thin thread as we almost got scored a few times later on. With me covering the paint as a help defender, the tallest guy was always open for a dish-off when I left to contest the driving opponent, but I quickly fixed that while using Mike.

You see, the good thing about a few tall guys is that they don't have the same quickness or fast thinking that the rest does, and it seemed to be the case with this one. I believe his only ability is to dunk, which we haven't seen yet, because he wouldn't even receive the ball at all, mostly due to lack of finesse and positioning, or if he received it, he would fumble the ball without even putting the ball on the basket.

Coupled with me fronting him at every attempt they tried to feed him the ball, it made the rest of his teammates not trust him in the offense as the game went on.

Though the thing is, in one of the early possessions, one of my teammates let his opponent slip, leaving the guy wide open to shoot the basketball, fortunately, in a quick dash, Mike covered and contested in the last second.

The guy who let the dude slip was a bit nervous, seeing Jackson yell with all the other guys from their team expected the same from me since I was the closest thing to a leader on our team. Even as I am the taller one, I took the task to guard the 6'6 guy in the paint, while covering most mishappens that allowed the opponents to get inside the paint.

And what actually happened to this teammate, I just glanced at him and told him to stay glued to his guy and awake, that was his only assignment.

This made the other two strangers from our team to be more at ease, less nervous. And over the next possessions, we let Jackson's friends be more open than in the previous play as well. Meaning, leaving a little distance to the ball handler in order to better defend the drive, but also ok with their shots.

Jackson's team proved to be awful floor-spacers, aka shooters, which allowed my guys to help even more inside the paint where they could've made more damage.

After another missed shot from their team, I tried to keep their 6'6 guy away and managed to tip the rebound away to one of our teammates.

By this time, Mike had already run away for the fast break, but their PG noticed and guarded him to prevent the score.

After the 6'6 guy left, midst the yells from Jackson, I asked for the ball back and slowed down the tempo, allowing their defense to set as I walked to the half-court line.

As I arrived, I looked at Jackson and said.

"Yo, Jackson. What you think about this?"

He fired a look back as he stopped yelling for a second.

Making sure I received Jackson's attention, I let the ball go from my hands.

"You can't be serious." Their PG muttered as he saw the ball go in a perfect arc towards the basket.

Soon the sound of the ball hitting the net was heard. Jackson again cursed.

"DAAAAMNIT!!!!!!" He yelled.

Their entire team had gloomy faces and couldn't believe it.

'The heck is going on?' The PG thought.

Their PG, meaning Point Guard, a guy named Daniel, is a strong-willed guy. He had played college basketball for the second division, but couldn't keep up because his grades dropped. Unfortunately, basketball was the second thing in his mind at this point in life, he wanted to get a degree so that he could complete his father's wish.

Since he couldn't play this year because of his grades, much less successfully advance class, so he decided to study hard this year while absent from basketball, and next year he would be back to playing in college. His plan was to try the draft in a minor basketball league and proceed to have a career in basketball, his true passion, after finishing college.

Today, he only came because from studying hard these past few days, he accumulated stress, and after having his exams this morning for one major class, he decided to come here and play pickup to feel better.

Not waiting to see a kid, not even 17 years old, dominate even if it was a pickup game, Daniel was really surprised.

"Okay, let's go. But let's do it better this time." The Point Guard said to Jackson and his teammates after recovering and tried to cheer them up. Daniel had seen his shares of bad losses in college, so he could take hits.

What he couldn't do was lose without his team scoring a single basket.

Daniel dribbled the ball and came to the other side of the court. He was determined to score at least a few buckets since there was too little chance for a comeback. As some time had passed, the score was 17-0, and our team didn't seem to be slowing down in Daniel's opinion.

One of the sideline guys on our team was guarding him, he is a lanky light-skin teenager, and even though Daniel wasn't in the best shape since focusing on his studies, but he could surely take the other guy for a dance.

He crossed the ball to his right as he went east and glanced at one of Jackson's friends to set the screen. Jackson was already on the other low-post cursing and calling for the ball. Daniel ignored him and kept going around the screen, he dribbled hard as if going for a drive.

With me in the left block, I could barely reach for Daniel, but as he was about to come into the paint, I closed in a bit, coupled with Mike on the right post guarding Jackson and Daniel's defender, he was walking into a triple-team trap if he kept going.

Daniel, witnessing the last possessions while I contested most attempts at the basket, suddenly decided to pull the ball to the right wing as if drawing back. His defender was about to position himself the right-wing while staying in front of Daniel, but in a quick burst, Daniel sped towards the basket, because now Mike, the usual help defender, was trapped in the corner defending Jackson without expecting the drive, allowing Daniel to attack me and also having the 6'6 guy just as dangerously close to the basket.

I admit, at that moment it was pretty hard to contain the situation, having to defend two guys at the same time, so the next movement from one of the guys Mike and I picked gave us a chance to change the play. The stranger who had let his assignment slip earlier had surprisingly poked the ball from Daniel's hand, proving the poor spacing that Jackson's friend provided as he didn't need to worry about a three-point shot.

The ball was loose for a moment, but unfortunately for us, Daniel still managed to recover it, though too late as Mike also managed to recover, instead of Daniel's original defender, now it was Mike who guarded him.

Daniel used this chance and tried to use the same strategy as just now, taking Mike to the post, as his body was way heavier than Mike's, so he bodied him to the block, bumping his shoulder into Mike's chest until the latter gave in and was pushed back. This way, he would be attacking basically two-on-one again.

With Mike being only 5'8, and Daniel around 6'0, there was a height and weight advantage for Daniel.

Daniel, not so quick as he would like, stepped inside the paint after occasionally faking a pass to the perimeter, in order to prevent the double-team, as again, the spacing was horrible on his team. After finally planting his left foot inside the paint, he used it to pivot in and show the ball to Mike, trying to pump fake.

At this moment, I stepped in and completely double-teamed Daniel, who now lost the angle to pass the ball, and as he tried to spin back to throw the ball to the others after losing his balance, I hooked my arm under the ball and pulled it away from him.

As I stole the ball, I ran towards the other end, midst the bumps from Jackson's teammates. As I drove into the high post, there were already three guys covering the paint, so bring the ball out to the three-point line, I noticed Mike arriving just in time to set a screen, not expecting it, Jackson was caught up and left me open to shoot the outside shot.

The score was now 19-0. Jackson's team instantly gave up, if they hadn't already.

For the last possession, Daniel was about to receive a lazy pass from another guy, but it got stolen as Mike jumped in the passing lane. At this moment, everybody had given up, so there wasn't anybody running with him.

He measured his steps, and arriving close enough to the three-point line, Mike rose while initiating his shooting form. As the ball left his hands, the next noticeable sound was the ball hitting the net.

Splash!