The Indian National Tournament

New Delhi

India

“Those are our opponents?” scoffed the Delhi basketball team captain, looking at the Karnataka team.

“Small-ball (1), really? Easy win for us, bro!” jeered the vice-captain.

“That’s their center?” he added, staring at the morbidly undersized center of the Karnataka team. His jersey said:

64

KUMAR

Lokesh was aware that his entire team, including him, was undersized. Despite the fact that he stood at 183 centimeters (6’0), he was still extremely small for his position. Even in India, normal centers stood at 193 centimeters (6’4) and above.

“Alright, folks,” he mused. “Continue underestimating us, and we’ll snatch the victory from under your noses!”

The referee walked on to the court. “Both teams, prepare for the tip-off!” he yelled. “Centers, square up!”

Lokesh Kumar and the Delhi team’s vice-captain, Parth Prasad, faced each other for the opening tip. Parth was a giant of a guy, standing at about 196 centimeters (6’5). He was extremely confident that his team would thrash the Karnataka team, as almost everyone was bigger.

Basketball was a sport of height, and Parth knew it.

It was the only reason they could never beat the Punjab team, who were much bigger than they were.

And it would be the reason for Team Karnataka’s downfall.

The referee walked up to the centers, waited for them to get in the position, and tossed up the ball for the tip-off to start the game. Almost instantly, his whistle dropped out of his mouth, and Parth Prasad’s eyes widened.

“How is he that high in the air?”

Lokesh’s massive hand was a few centimeters above Parth’s. He quickly tipped the ball to his teammate, Ashish Mehra, and the game began.

Ashish ran towards the three point line to shoot the ball. He quickly got into shooting form and began the motion.

“OI! CROWD HIM! STOP THE SHOT!” yelled the coach of Delhi.

Three defenders rushed as Ashish to stop the shot, but Ashish flung up a high-arcing shot which went like a projectile towards the hoop.

“IT’S OFF!” screamed the coach. “GET THE REBOUND!”

But, Ashish had never intended for the shot to go into the hoop.

Three guys from the Delhi team jumped up to grab the rebound. Suddenly, a shadow seemed to cover their eyes. The squinted hard for the ball and their eyes widened in sheer horror and bewilderment.

“How is he that high in the air?”

Lokesh took to air and catapulted to such a height that it was now impossible for the Delhi players to get the rebound. He gripped the ball with both hands and reverse-dunked it into the basket with a THUNK.

Unfortunately, that was followed by a SNAP and a SMASH! The dunk was so powerful that it ripped the hoop off the backboard, which had then shattered into pieces.

“WHAT THE BLAZES WAS THAT?” breathed the entire Delhi team, the bench, and the entire audience.

The referee ran up to stop the game.

“Umm…it appears that we’re facing some…ah…technical difficulties,” said the announcer. “A repair crew will carry out repairs on the hoop. The game will resume in 30 minutes! Sorry for the delay!”

“That was the shortest period of play I’ve ever seen,” said one of the referees. “Ten seconds, really?”

But the other two didn’t hear him.

“In my entire career as a ref,” they thought. “I have never, ever, seen an Indian guy fly up like that and reverse-dunk the ball! Who does he think he is, an NBA player?”

*

The hoops and backboards in India were just not strong enough to handle the dunking of Lokesh Kumar, and the organizers of the competition knew it.

“Bring some higher quality hoops,” an organizer said. “This will be a long, long, tournament!”

They just weren’t used to players dunking like that.

Nobody was.

*

A bunch of college students arrived at the stadium’s tea stall and ordered a few cups of tea. “Hey, brother,” they greeted the stall owner. “How’s business?”

“Dull,” he grunted.

“How’s the basketball tournament going?” they pressed. “I think there’s barely any crowd.”

“There was some crowd today,” the stall-owner responded, suddenly happier. “Apparently some guy dunked the basketball. Quite a few people showed up to see him.”

One of the students spat his tea out.

“Dunked? Did you say dunked?”

“Yes,” said the tea-seller, suddenly curious as to what was so great about it.

“Dude, we’ve got to see this guy play!” the guy yelled, turning to his friends. “Never, ever, have I heard of or seen an Indian teenager dunk the ball! I know six-foot-five guys who can’t even touch the rim!”

*

The combined assault of Lokesh Kumar and Ashish Mehra proved to be too much for the Delhi team to handle. Karnataka beat Delhi 98-79 in the opening game.

A powerhouse team had been eliminated, and people were starting to take notice.

As the tournament progressed, suddenly, there was a new favorite in the ranks of the top teams to win the tournament.

Many people had speculated that either Punjab or Maharashtra would end up champions.

But now, they were forced to add Karnataka to their list.

In the very next game, they destroyed a rampaging Haryana team 112-99. In the game after that, they breezed through the Goa team 120-89.

The entire country was now starting to take notice of Lokesh Kumar. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the lad.

His destiny was about to change, forever.

But there was one person, who was extremely unhappy about the events. It wasn’t Anuj Varma, nor was it any old rival of Lokesh’s.

It was his own father.

And he was distraught.

*

Against all odds, Lokesh and Team Karnataka took out Maharashtra in an epic encounter, 117-111, to enter the semi-finals of the national tournament, where they destroyed Kerala 118-83.

The team entered the finals with the entire country’s eyes on them. Suddenly, an underdog team was about to make history at the national stage. The very prospect of this had drawn throngs of crowds to the arena to watch them play.

And they were never disappointed.

“He flies like Hanuman, (2)” they would say to each other.

At long last, the much anticipated finals of the national tournament arrived with Team Karnataka facing off against the unbeaten side, Team Punjab.

“Holy Moses!” said Ashish Mehra. “What is that guy?”

Lokesh had to agree. The Punjab players were huge. Their center stood at almost seven feet tall. He had big, bulging muscles and a pair of focused, earnest, eyes.

“Finally,” thought Lokesh. “A good match-up for me!”

Just then, a man in a suit entered the stadium. He didn’t appear to be from India at all. “Hey, guys,” he addressed a bunch of college students, who had shown up for all the games at the advice of a tea-seller. “Who’s playing today?”

“It’s the finals. Punjab versus Karnataka,” they replied. “Karnataka’s lead player is incredible! He’s literally the only reason they made it so far!”

The man frowned. “One guy carried his team to the national finals?”

*

Lokesh squared up against Punjab’s center, Jyot Singh, a 211 centimeter (6’11) monster of a man. Jyot frowned upon seeing Lokesh. “You’re barely six feet, how are you a center?”

“Tallest guy on my team!” grinned Lokesh. “And you’ll soon see why we made it to the finals!”

The referee threw up the ball and the two men jumped for the opening tip. As high as Lokesh could jump, he was ultimately no match for a man who was eleven inches taller than him. Punjab won the opening tip and started the game.

A teammate quickly passed the ball to Jyot Singh near the basket, who went in for an easy bucket.

SWAT.

The entire team of Punjab’s jaws dropped in utter shock as Lokesh Kumar leapt above Jyot Singh, swatted the ball out of his hands and ran to retrieve it. He grasped the ball in his hand and jammed it into the basket at the other side.

The crowd cheered loudly.

Karnataka had scored first. Against the strongest team in the country, at that.

“YES!” yelled Lokesh happily. He could almost feel the taste of winning the entire tournament. And he knew that his bucket had just put his team in the best position to win.

He knew he had just raised their morale infinitely.

What he did not know, however, was that a pair of eyes was observing him. Very, very, intently.

Endnotes.

1. Small-Ball: A strategy used by teams in which each of their players is relatively undersized for their position. The trade-off involves sacrificing size for speed.

2. Hanuman: A warrior-god in Indian legends. Was known to have the appearance of an ape-man. Hanuman possessed extreme strength, speed, agility, and the ability to fly. Hence the comparison.

Author’s Note

Hey guys!

First of all, I’d like to apologize for the long, long delay in publishing new chapters. I am a student myself, and we had a project to submit. This proved to be super-stressful and time consuming. I had no peace of mind all these days. For this reason, I did not want to force out subpar content. Hope y’all understand!

From now, there will be more than one chapter a day. Stay tuned!

Cheers

~srj5