Banter, Basketball, and Advice

Tuesday, August 6. 1:50 pm.

Spain without the S: bro u wanna hang

That single message, plus a bit more back-and-forth, taking the MTR and minibus and including getting lost in a residential area has gotten Yan to this point: a small basketball court near Herman’s home. Of course, there’s already a couple of people occupying the court, but in Hong Kong, a place without many sportsgrounds, one just has to make do.

‘Hup!’ Herman shoots the ball from the free throw line. With a beautiful arch, the ball cleanly slips into the basket with a swoosh before it falls right back towards Herman, who has already placed himself underneath the basket for his prize. He smirks at Yan, passing the ball to the latter’s chest.

‘Your turn,’ he says.

Standing at the elbow, Yan positions the ball just above his forehead. With a light hop, he shoots, the ball floating in a nice arch… but that’s not going in.

He dashes forward and jumps a step before he reaches the paint… just as the ball bounces off the rim in his direction. Catching it midair, he lightly tosses the ball upwards again, watching it neatly roll into the basket as he lands softly on the ground.

Alley-oop.

‘Broooooo, that was a nice one,’ Herman compliments.

‘Eh… It’s ok, I guess.’

‘Remember that time you somehow got the most rebounds in a game with the boys?’

‘Yeah, that was really insane,’ Yan chuckles.

It was around half a year ago during winter break. A classmate had booked an indoor court and invited people for a 5v5. Of course, more than ten people eventually joined, including Yan who was invited through Herman. Being one of the shortest on the pitch, there wasn’t really much they expected of him… until he snatched the first rebound off a starter in the high school’s basketball team. Yan was weak, lacked height and strength, didn’t have much stamina… but he had vision. Whether in defence or offence, he saw the direction of a shot before anyone else did, jumping to receive the ball before his opponents had even reacted. Rebound after rebound, jump after jump, even the tallest guys later became wary of him.

‘OH MY GODDDD!’ He still remembers the flabbergasted expressions of his classmates when he made his first and only alley-oop in the game, his body floating like he had wings on his back. Of course, he only got lucky, but it was still a great flex to talk about even on the first day back at school after the break ended.

What a vibe.

Honestly, that day he felt like a protagonist, the star of the show.

‘Should’ve joined the basketball team, man,’ Herman jokes.

‘Nah, I’m definitely not getting in,’ he responds. ‘You tried out and didn’t get in, didn’t you? And you’re like, what, 180 cm? I’m a whole head shorter. The coach isn’t even gonna look at me.’

‘You were fucking insane that day though. You would’ve at least gotten a chance.’

‘Nah, bruh, you’re messing with me.’ Yan slaps Herman’s back, a loud, hollow sound resonating from the inside.

‘OW! What the fuck, man?’ Herman immediately retaliates, slamming his palm on Yan’s back in return.

‘OI!’ They chase and slap each other around like kids in a playground, all the while laughing and shouting dramatically in pain. At least it’s not the ass.

Herman, despite his rudeness and tendency to make fun of people, has been one of Yan’s closest friends for years. Sure, their hobbies might be mostly different, their personalities nearly opposites, and even their appearances seem wildly apart, but the way Herman uses ‘bro’ isn’t too far from how Yan perceives him as a person. He doesn’t even know what is bonding their friendship together, but that’s perhaps why it’s so strong. It doesn’t need anything to prove the bond exists anymore.

‘Bro, you are so dead!’ Herman shouts as he picks up the basketball and throws it at Yan, hitting him straight at his back. Yan trips and falls to the ground, his arms out just in time to stop his body from completely tumbling over.

‘Agh…’ he hisses in pain.

‘Shoot, you good?’ Realising his braindead blunder, Herman rushes over and looks at Yan.

‘Yeah, I’m good,’ he answers, quickly getting up on his feet and dusting off his shorts. His knees and palms are grazed, but it isn’t really a big deal.

‘Ah, ok then,’ Herman breathes a sigh of relief. ‘Quick 1v1?’

That’s quit a turn of events.

‘Uh, sure?’ Taking the ball, he places himself outside the three-point line before passing the ball to Herman. With the pass back, the 1v1 begins.

Yan sprints to the right. With a large stride, Herman is suddenly in front of him like a wall, blocking him from any way forward. That’s manageable. He abruptly stops, throwing Herman off for a split second. Quickly stepping back, the space is created. With a jump, he aims the ball and shoots…

It’s not going in.

He ducks past Herman, seeing the arch of the ball fall just short of the basket. It’s going to be an air ball. Herman turns and runs towards the direction of the basket, probably also having guessed where the ball will land. But Yan is already positioned between him and the basket, occupying the usual prime 45-degree space for a rebound.

Yan leaps up, his arms reaching for the ball.

But this is not a rebound. The ball’s too low, far lower than Yan expects it to be. Herman’s long arms to reach it first, hooking it back to his body and bringing it outside the three-point line. A turnover, and suddenly, Yan is on the defence. Without a strong, tall body, he can only helplessly watch Herman ease past him, placing the ball into the basket in a simple layup.

‘Let’s goooooo!’ Herman punches the air in victory.

‘Bruh…’

They play again. And again. And again. After many rounds, Yan collapses onto the ground, the world spinning before his eyes. He breathes and breathes, but his body still needs more oxygen. Meanwhile, Herman sits beside him, sweating hard just the same but with no sign of tiring.

‘Bro, why are you so weak?’ he teases.

‘S… Shut up,’ Yan manages to say between his deep breaths. ‘I… need… a break.’

‘Geez, you’re actually dying twenty minutes into the 1v1… If you’re really tired, we could just walk back to my place.’

‘O… Ok.’

Sure enough, the two of them soon leave the court, Herman carrying the basketball and following closely behind Yan, the latter gradually recovering, colour flowing back to his face. Despite being close to a station, the residential area is amazingly quiet, with only the occasional car or minibus speeding past causing a minor ruckus.

‘You know, I met a girl through a dating app,’ Herman opens.

‘You WHAT?’ Yan shouts in shock, his voice echoing a little on the street.

‘Bro, calm the fuck down,’ Herman says as he slaps Yan in the back. Again. ‘She’s a really nice person, but initially, she said she just swiped past the first time she saw my profile.’

‘Probably cos you’re ugly,’ he comments.

‘Shut up,’ Herman snaps back. ‘Anyway, the second time round she thought maybe she’ll give me a chance, and I eventually took her on a date.’

‘Nah, bro, when was this?’

‘Uh, last week.’

Yan has never heard of this, nor can he imagine Herman of all people dating someone. He silently prays for the unknown girl, hoping she won’t ditch Herman for his absurdity.

‘The thing is, I actually talked to her on the app for almost a month before the date.’

‘And you didn’t tell the homies this.’

‘No.’

‘And you shame me for being friends with Crystal.’

‘Look, it’s different—’

‘It’s different, different in that mine is just a friendsh—’

‘Shut. Shut. I ain’t hearing any of that. Ok, anyway, I realised on the date how lucky I was to have met this person, and I’m thinking of confessing my feelings in the next few dates.’

‘Dang. Dang. Dang…’ Yan cannot believe his ears.

‘So what should I do?’ Herman asks. ‘Like what should I say and stuff?’

‘You’re asking me, a guy with zero experience?’

‘Well who else am I supposed to ask?’ Herman looks at Yan straight in the eyes. ‘You’ve probably got at least some idea from the romance stuff you read. No, I’m not joking. This is very serious.’

‘Ok, if you insist…’ It’s rare having Herman in such a mood, especially when minutes earlier they were still just playing basketball and messing with each other as usual.

Wait… Basketball.

‘This feels weird to say, but think of the basket as that girl and your confession the ball,’ Yan explains, beginning to formulate an idea. ‘You need to score to win. You might have many defenders in front of you, those mental barriers stopping you from “getting the girl”, so to speak. You can dribble all you want, run around and around those defenders, but in the end, if you don’t shoot, you’re not gonna score.’

‘But what does that gotta do with what I should say?’

‘I… honestly can’t give you good advice on what to say,’ Yan admits. ‘All I can say is that, uh, even if your shot is shit, at least you shot. And if you miss, you can just grab the rebound and score again. But if you don’t shoot, you’ll never be able to score.’

‘Um… I’ll keep that in mind,’ Herman replies.

‘Now, where’s the money?’ Yan puts his hands out expectantly.

‘What money?’

‘Consultancy fee,’ Yan says. ‘10k.’

‘Shut the fuck up.’

The banter continues as they head to Herman’s home, but for some reason, the basketball analogy Yan made up on the spot sticks inside his mind. For someone whose only romantic experiences lay in the fictional, he feels he’s way too underqualified to give his friend love advice. Still, that feels like a good analogy, doesn’t it? It fits with the whole ‘shoot your shot’ idea, the idea that one needs to take that crucial step forward to even have a possibility at reaching the goal.

That same analogy might come in handy for him in the future as well.