Meeting

The group of coaches hired by FIBA gathered together in the late-evening to discuss the allotment of the participants.

FIBA had gathered twelve coaches for this summer camp. Two for Division-One, five for Division-Two, and another five for Division-Three.

All of them gathered in a big meeting room to bounce off observations about the players that caught their eyes.

One of the coaches for the Division-Three chuckled as he spoke to the gathered people.

D-3 Coach: "Today was a fruitful day. It was a pleasure to see Gilbert Knight and Ivan Petrovic play."

A lot of members nodded their heads and gave similar responses.

D-2 Coach: "This will be their third time attending this camp. So, it is not a surprise that they will go to Division-One."

Gilbert Knight from the USA and Ivan Petrovic from Serbia had been attending the camp since they were sixteen years old, and this was their third and last year.

Coach Albert nodded his head and said.

Albert: "They have grown considerably from last year. This year as well, they will be in Division-One. Enough about them, let's see who else will be in the Division-One."

A Division-Two coach picked up some files and spoke.

D-2 Coach: "Bruno Muller from Germany, Antony Grigor from Russia, Carlos Santos from Brazil.

They were in Division-One last year. What about them?"

Coach Albert looked at his notes and recalled the game clips that he had seen earlier today, he crossed his arms and said.

Albert: "I saw their games. They played well. All of them have started to branch out in their unique directions. I will work with them to guide and solve their problems.

All three of them would be in Division-One."

Albert flipped to his notes and addressed another topic.

Albert: "These were the only players that attended the camp last year, now let's move onto the new ones.

I want Rafael Garcia from Spain, and Roger Mael from France to be in Division-One."

All of the coaches picked up their files, and one of them spoke.

D-2 Coach: "Rafael Garcia skipped the camp last year due to injury, and it is Roger Mael's first time being invited to the camp."

Albert nodded and said.

Albert: "Roger is a good talent, he is seventeen, and I think he is an essential point in his high school career, I would like to help him.

But, I really want to work with Rafael Garcia, he is a unique type of player that I haven't seen in a while."

Next were some unusual players that the coaches didn't think would attend the camp.

D-3 Coach: "I don't think those three would attend the camp, the player at their level don't usually don't attend international camps."

A lot of coaches nodded with the assessment.

D-2 Coach: "We only usually see that level of players when the camp is hosted in their country."

A Division-Three coach shrugged and said.

D-3 Coach: "Not all players are thinking of going professional, so attending the camp is not for them, but we unexpectedly got three this year and that from different countries."

All of them looked at the names on the files; Lin Ming from China, Douglas Pierce from Argentina, and Leonel Claude from Italy.

Everybody looked at Coach Albert and waited to see if he would take them into Division-One.

Albert closed his eyes and remained silent for a while. He was contemplating if he should take them in.

After a while, he opened his eyes and said.

Albert: "I will take them in. They accepted the invitation and came here, which means they welcomed some new exposure. But..."

Albert's eyes became serious, and he continued.

Albert: "If they slack off, then I will demote them to Division-Two, and that just doesn't apply to these three, I will demote anyone that slacked-off in Division-One.

If they work their hardest, then I have no problems with coaching them."

Division-Two and Division-Three coaches thought that this was the end of the Division-One group, but then someone spoke that indicated that it not the end of it.

???: "I have a recommendation of Division-One."

Everybody except Coach Albert looked at the speaker, while Albert only smiled.

A Division-Three looked at the speaker and smiled.

D-3 Coach: "Ms. Sarah, who are you talking about?"

Sarah Snow, she was the other Division-One coach and the only female coach in this year's FIBA camp.

[A/N: Sarah Snow uses Chifuyu Orimura from Infinite Stratos. The link will be in the description.]

Coach Sarah looked at the coaches and revealed her recommendation.

Sarah: "Kageyama Shun from Japan. I think he is a solid Division-One player."

All of the coaches looked confused and looked at Shun in their files. They found that the referee of the game had graded Shun as a Division-One material.

They looked at his test results and game stats, and their eyes bulged out when they saw the stats of the game.

D-3 Coach: "How did he get so many steals?!"

The other coaches cursed him in their minds as the sentence that he spoke indirectly showed that they hadn't seen Shun's game clip.

All of them were busy watching the game clips of Division-One members that they didn't bother seeing other games. They were just going to use the referee data to sort others.

One of the coaches wanted to save some face, so he spoke.

D-2 Coach: "I saw the game. And while his stats are incredible, but look at his physical numbers, they aren't nearly enough."

Sarah didn't say anything and played Shun's game on the screen in the meeting room. She put it on a higher playback speed and let others watch the game.

Many gasped when they saw Shun dunk, they marveled at Shun's playmaking, they were a little surprised when Shun took three-pointers, and they were dumbstruck when they saw the second half of the game.

D-3 Coach: "You mean all those steals were in the second half?"

Sarah paused the game and said.

Sarah: "We can see that he could've scored on his so many times throughout the game. He didn't and just kept moving the ball around. He only did what a playmaker usually does, and that is making plays.

I think if the opponent was stronger, then he would have moved on active offense, but he didn't feel the need to do that in this game."

One of the Division-Two coached turned to Coach Albert and asked.

D-2 Coach: "Mr. Hamilton, what do you think of Kageyama Shun?"

Albert picked up his notes and showed it to everybody. Shun's name was under the prospective list of Division-One players.

Albert: "I was going to bring him up, but Sarah did it first."

A Division-Two coach scratched his head as he looked at Shun's stats and test results.

D-2 Coach: "His shooting skills are exceptional, and the stealing ability also catches attention, but are they enough?"

Albert shrugged and replied.

Albert: "Look at his age."

The Division-Two coach tilted his head as he spoke while searching for Shun's age.

D-2 Coach: "What do you mean by his age.... Eh?!"

He shocked stiff when he found Shun's age.

D-2 Coach: "Th-Thirteen years old!!!"

The other coaches looked shocked when they heard Shun's age.

D-3 Coach: "How is here?!"

D-2 Coach: "You mean to say that he is playing at this level at age thirteen!"

D-2 Coach: "How did we miss this?!"

The meeting room was in an uproar at the existence of Shun in this camp.

Albert raised his hands and shouted.

Albert: "Please, quiet down!"

The room slowly calmed down, so Albert motioned for Sarah to continue. Sarah nodded and spoke.

Sarah: "Kageyama Shun got special dispensation to join the camp. We weren't asked to provide him with any preferential treatment, so FIBA agreed.

And from Japan, only he alone accepted the invitation, so FIBA authorities were alright with him attending.

Or, so they have told me."

Sarah looked at Albert, and he nodded. She looked at the rest of the people in the room and announced.

Sarah: "Kageyama Shun is going to join the Division-One."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

The person in question was playing card games in his rooms with the friends that he made since he came to the camp.

Shun screamed in irritation as he lost another round.

Shun: "How in the world is your luck so good!"

Ming laughed hysterically and said.

Ming: "Sucks to be you! Hahahahahahaha!!!"

The rest of the guys just shook their heads as they looked at the two roommates, but at the same time, they looked at their cards and cursed Ming in their mind.