Ignited Competitiveness

Me and Kyrie standing opposite each other with me holding the ball. We could see in each other's eyes the competitive spirit to outplay the other guy. When he was defending me earlier I easily made a score.

As much as how Kyrie is good at scoring, his defense is a little lacking, maybe because of his height or physique, but with the way he defended me one-on-one, he needs more improvement.

The trainer blew the whistle and I gave the ball to Kyrie to start our duel, I immediately went game mode. No kidding around and complete focus on the opponent opposite to me.

Kyrie is still holding the ball swinging to the right and then to the left and finding a hole in my defense to breakthrough. He saw my left foot going wide all of a sudden and he quickly drives to my right, but unfortunately for him, I easily recovered and pressed him hard.

He looked calm despite the pressure and spins to my left but he still can't make a good shot so he backed up a little and reset.

Everybody else watching our duel is holding their breaths, afraid that they might cause any distractions in the intense one-on-one. Even the trainers, coaches, and even the scouts watching from the sidelines are feeling the intense atmosphere.

Kyrie still focused dribbles on top of the post with me guarding him tightly not giving him space to make an open shot. I tried poking my hands on the ball to throw him off a little bit but he stayed composed and looked like he was not at the slightest disadvantage.

As a few seconds went by, he finally decided to fake drive to the left and changed directions to the right at full speed. I quickly reacted and tried to get in front of him as much as possible and I did.

But what I didn't expect next was that he stopped abruptly with his right foot and made a dribble between his legs to make a step-back jump shot. I knew what was coming so I gave it my all to catch up and contest his shot.

I jumped the highest I ever did when blocking a jump shot and prayed to God I can still reach him. Kyrie also intended for a quick release but when the ball was about to leave his hands, it was slightly interrupted midway going for the basket.

When I felt the ball from my fingertips, I celebrated in my mind. But the touch was not enough because the ball is still going toward the basket but it hit the rim so I felt relaxed again. But I guess I celebrated too early because the ball bounce again above the rim and found its way inside the basket.

Everyone cheered from that single play and no one thought that one of us made a mistake or was playing bad. The entire duel lasted for less than 30 seconds yet it felt like it lasted an hour.

Kyrie celebrated with some of the friends he made in this camp and after a while, he came to me.

"Hey bruh, that was some good shit out there. If we played a few more times, I'd bet you beat me most of the time. I really like how you play man, you a real baller, I tell you that." Kyrie offered me a handshake and we bumped shoulders.

"You did me one out there man. But next time I'll definitely get you." Not much more words to be said and we got acquainted just like that.

I think the main reason I lost that time is that I was thinking so much that he is gonna attack the basket. I only anticipated him making a jumper like 1/5 times. But I guess he felt that I was tightening my defense on his drives too much that he got enough space to step back, so that's a great job on him.

After lunch, we gathered again for some announcements.

"Alright guys, a lot of you prove your abilities earlier this morning and we have finally finished your evaluations. So what we did is that we are assigning each of you a specific position in which you will play in this entire camp until you are told to change otherwise."

"So from our morning drills, each of you will be assigned either a point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center. That means you are divided according to roles so there will be 16 players in each assigned role. For our scrimmages this afternoon, 2 games will be played at the same time for 20 minutes per game and 10 minutes per half."

"We're only playing practice matches and our time is limited so don't try to outdo yourselves and cause an injury so always be careful. Scrimmages like this will be the basis for evaluating who wins the final rewards. We posted the lineups for today on the information board behind you so after you see which court you're going to play, head there immediately and prepare for your matches."

"You're given only 5 minutes to discuss with your teammates and another 3 minutes for warmup so if there aren't any further questions, we can now start."

Coach Mike waited a few seconds and signaled us to go.

When I saw the list, I found that I'm playing in court B and my teammates are:

Trey Burke - PG 6'1

DJ Richardson - SG 6'3

Isaiah Armwood - PF 6'8

Alex Kirk - C 6'10

I'm assigned to play small forward which I particularly like and from my teammates, I only know Isaiah who I played against in round one of the Nationals. He played for Montrose as a power forward too and he's a really good player.

Trey Burke is a name that I think I remember playing in the NBA from my previous life. I think it was the Sacramento Kings or something. But since I don't particularly know him that well speaks that he's not really had that much impact in my previous life.

But that goes without a saying because this is not the NBA and from what I've heard, he's a really good and unselfish point guard. I'm quite confident with this team despite not knowing full well about the others.

"Hey Isaiah, we meet again. How are you?" I met up with Isaiah and it's nice to meet a familiar face.

"How's it going Quin, I'm doing good. It's so exciting to play with you, I only see you dominating against other teams, now I will know what it feels like to be a part of that." Isaiah laughed at that and we had a good time.

We got to introduce ourselves to the rest and so far, we are on the same page and no one seems to be against anyone.

From the list of players playing in court B, I saw that AD and Kawhi will also be playing with me along with John Wall and a few others. Kyrie and Bradley are playing in court A so it's a bit sad knowing I won't play against them today but I'm sure there'll be a lot of chances in the future.

For our game today, we'll be playing against a team with some players I know.

Marquis Teague - PG 6'2

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - SG 6'4

Jamil Wilson - SF 6'7

Karron Johnson - PF 6'7

Zeke Marshall - C 6'11

I think I remember Marquis Teague and Karron Johnson playing in my previous life but I can't remember which team so I had to pay attention to these guys and also KCP. I only know he played for the Lakers with LeBron James and I could see how well he plays so I expect this match will be a good one.