The Dance of the Basketball Gods

Houston

Texas

USA

Head Coach Rick of the Baltimore Barrage was now hopping mad.

“HOW DO YOU LET A TEAM WITH NO ALL-STAR TAKE THE GAME TO OVERTIME?” he roared. “WE HAVE FOUR ALL-STARS AND WE’RE STILL UNABLE TO CRUSH THEM!”

He paused, breathing heavily.

“Calm down, coach,” said Josh Okongo. “They’re not some team that has made it till here through luck.”

“BUT…”

“Coach, we get it,” smiled Josh. “This is a team sport. The team with the better five wins. And as per what I’m seeing, we have the better five.”

A buzzer sounded to indicate that overtime was about to start. Josh got off his seat and looked at his team.

“Well, let’s win!”

The team cheered loudly and got off their seats, walking onto the court.

“Prepare to go down, Cursed City,” they thought smugly. “You’re not the only ones with an amazing franchise player!”

*

Josh saw Lokesh Kumar slowly walk up to the court. He couldn’t believe that this loser of a guy had grown as a player enough to challenge him. But, he’d known from the start, that the final confrontation between him and Lokesh was inevitable.

When overtime started, Josh ran at the basket with Lokesh defending him. He jumped up, flung the ball out from between his legs, and threw down a powerful dunk on Lokesh’s head. He then stared his fallen rival down and left the place.

In his next possession, he crossed Lokesh over violently, causing him to lose balance. He then hit him with a mid-range jumper. In the very next possession, he hit a three pointer over Lokesh’s head.

The score was now 114 to 107.

Lokesh seemed to be having a hard time recovering from being destroyed by Josh. It was then that his teammates decided to step up.

Keon scored using his signature Shake ‘n’ Bake to posterize Deandre Washington. Kobayashi snatched Stanley Smith’s ankles and shot a mid-range jumper over

Odai Beckham Jr rejected Jared McRod at the rim. Danny Reynolds recovered the ball and shot another three from long distance.

SPLASH.

The score was now tied at 114.

For every shot Josh made, Lokesh’s team had a reply. Soon, the first overtime came to an end, with the score tied at 122.

“ARE YOU KIDDING?” howled Rick. “DOUBLE OVERTIME? AGAINST A TEAM WITH NO ALL-STARS? You’ve got to be kidding me!

Meanwhile, at the Houston bench, Lokesh finally came back to his senses.

“Sorry, guys,” he said. “Thanks for stepping up when I lost focus. But, I’ve figured out how to face Josh Okongo.”

“You have?” asked Keon. “How?”

Lokesh smiled. “Relentlessness.”

“I’m going to just go at him with no thought of consequences! Come what may!”

*

When double overtime started, the entire arena was now witness to the crazy speed, handling, and scoring of Lokesh Kumar and Josh Okongo. They began to demonstrate their bottomless energy and skill. They moved around like wildfire burning dry grass, their aspects terrible. Their rapid movements made every spectator and player feel like they had multiplied themselves, making shots from all over the court and converting the arena into a stage for the basketball gods.

Everyone was stunned. Never before had they seen such a display of ruthless scoring and defense. This was basketball at its finest.

The rest of the team rallied in support. Keon and Odai pulled down every rebound. Kobayashi and Dan absolutely destroyed Stan and Petar Varga. All they did was get the ball to Lokesh, who would somehow manage to score against Josh. But Josh was relentless as well, and he was more experienced. He slowly started pulling the game away from them.

Petar Varga tried to shoot, but he heard loud boos from the crowd, which caused him to miss badly. Keon grabbed the rebound and passed it to Lokesh for a layup. Petar glared at the crowd, but what he saw shocked him.

They weren’t Houston fans who were booing. They were fans of New York, his old team, and they were mad at his betrayal.

Petar Varga screamed in frustration.

Josh Okongo crossed Lokesh over and tried to dunk. As fast as lightning, Lokesh got up and blocked Josh. He then passed to Danny, who passed to Keon, who passed to Odai, who passed to Kobayashi. Baltimore couldn’t follow the ball’s movement. Kobayashi passed back to Lokesh in the corner who ran for a dunk. Josh jumped to block him, but Lokesh just contorted his body and went under him as deftly as a stunt plane. He then regained his usual form as Josh hit the ground.

“You’re kidding!” thought Josh. “How long is he going to stay in the air?”

Lokesh gripped the ball in his huge hands, he swept his arm from behind his body whole rotating 180° in the air, culminating the flying leap with a loud tomahawk dunk over Josh’s head.

THUNK.

This was Lokesh’s signature move.

The Spacewalk-Slam.

Because, it appeared like he was walking in zero-gravity.

The crowd cheered and screamed in pure joy. The score was now 140-139. If Houston could score once more in the last minute and prevent Baltimore from scoring, they’d end the curse and win the coveted NBA championship.

Head Coach Rick called a time-out. Before he could yell at his team, he noticed they were yelling at themselves.

“OI! DEANDRE!” screamed Stanley Smith. “YOU’RE BEING A LAZY OLD POTATO! YOU’RE LETTING THE KEON KID REBOUND EVERYTHING! GRAB SOME BOARDS FOR GODSAKES!”

“YOU’RE ONE TO TALK, CLOWN!” Deandre screamed back. “YOU’RE LETTING CANCER REYNOLDS AND THE ASIAN KID CROSS YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN! MOVE YOUR FEET!”

Suddenly, they both froze.

Realization crept into their heads.

These were the same things Danny Reynolds had told them before they got him waived out of spite.

*

Josh passed to Deandre who ran at the opponents. Suddenly, Keon made a grab for the ball and grasped it tightly. But, Deandre held on tight as well as they aimed to wrest the ball from each other’s grasp.

“Jump ball!” yelled the referee. “Stop pulling! Let go of the ball!”

But, neither wanted to.

Keon and Deandre tugged the ball at the same time to make the other person let go. Then, Deandre got mad and shoved Keon, who pushed back.

It was a pandemonium. Referees ran to separate the two, screaming.

There were 5 seconds left on the game clock.

Baltimore led 140-139.

On the night of Game 7 of the finals.