by Fresh8 on Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:26 pm
Chapter 24
Sit was watching the Stealth practise from the side of the court. Magic Johnson was sitting next to him, texting on his cell phone. George Karl and Sheed were working the sideline as the players were involved in an intra-squad scrimmage. Iverson and Kidd were both icing their bodies in different places. Kidd had a sore back and right shoulder while Iverson was out with a strained hamstring. There was just less than a week before the team’s regular season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Hustle! Hustle!” Karl was trying to shout, his voice didn’t project quite as much as it used to.
Sheed was helping him out, “Come on you pussies! Run! Hustle!”
The pair had another two assistant coaches who monitored the players and they sat quietly near Kidd and Iverson; scribbling notes onto their clipboards. Sit watched intently as he thought about the drills he would have put his team through. Although Seattle were an offensive team, Sit tried to put them through defensive drill after defensive drill. Since Karl had taken over, the team was put through offence, offence and more offence.
“I like this team,” Magic said.
Sit looked over at Magic who had slid his phone back into his jacket pocket, “Oh yeah?”
“We got all the pieces,” he replied.
“Except for defence,” Sit smiled.
Magic laughed, “I think we can win with this group and play entertaining basketball at the same time.”
Sit didn’t really agree but nodded anyway. He continued to watch the practice session unfold. Ty had the ball cradled closed to his body. He watched his teammates dart from side to side in futile attempts to get open. Durant was keeping an eye on him a couple of feet away. Ty caught Adam Morrison on the wrong foot and immediately drove to the hoop. Durant got there in time to block his shot. The ball went out of bounds and Durant was getting high fives from Bogut and Morrison.
“Where’s that in the real games,” Ty asked Durant.
Durant ignored him and Ty went right up to him, “Where’s that effort in the games?”
Durant faced Ty and stated, “Piss off.”
Ty dug his forearm into Durant’s chest, “You lazy son of a bitch.”
By this stage, other team mates had come to break the two up.
“Knock it off you two!” Karl called out.
Sheed had run onto the court and got in between Ty and Durant, “Chill guys, chill! We all cool!”
Sheed grinned as the two walked away from each other. It wasn’t the first nor the last time they would get heated and jaw at each other during practice. Kidd removed the ice pack from his shoulder and tossed it aside. He leaned over and grabbed his bottle from off the floor.
“How’s that hamstring?” he asked Iverson.
Iverson shrugged.
“That bad huh?”
Iverson shook his head, “I’ma going to play against Philly and I’ma going to score 50 y’know.”
“Yeah,” Kidd rolled his eyes, “I know.”
“And uh, I’ma win that sixth man of the year shit man,” Iverson continued talking, “I should be starting for these no-good suckers but I’ma come off the bench yo. I’m still playing like I was 23 man. Real talk right here… shieeetttt…”
Right there and then, Kidd wished he had never started the conversation with AI.
* * *
“Starting at the other forward… KEVIN DURANT!!!”
Durant jogged to midcourt where Bogut, Lee, Kidd and Ty formed a small huddle. Durant pushed Ty out of the way and jumped in the middle of the huddle. He bobbed up and down on the spot as the fans continued to stay on their feet. The chants of “My team, my team, my team!’ continued to rain down from all around.
“Give it up for… YOUR STEALTH!!!”
The roar was even louder; the noise was just deafening for the starters who were at midcourt. George Karl was standing at his bench. Sheed and the Stealth reserves were seated behind him. Sit watched from the confines of a corporate box. Magic would join him later. For the time being, Sit was enjoying being out of the shadow of the team’s new owner. Sit was looking through his email messages on his phone. Isaiah Thomas had sent yet another email enquiring on the availability of Ty. Sit deleted it.
“Yo Sit!” Magic Johnson had entered the room as the game tipped off below.
Sit turned, “Sup?”
Magic took his jacket off and gave it to one of the ushers, “Keep this safe.”
Magic sat down next to Sit, “What you doing?”
“Checking emails,” Sit answered, “Oh man, I am pissed off at whoever leaked that Nets trade proposal to the media.”
Sit was referring to reports that the Nets were ready to part with three players to trade for Ty. One of the players rumoured to be a part of the trade package was Rudy Fernandez; a favourite of Sit’s.
“That stuff happens,” Magic told him.
“I know man,” Sit nodded, “What do you think of Rudy?”
“Who?”
“Fernandez.”
Magic laughed, “Average.”
Both men were on their feet as the Stealth scored their first points for the 2013-14 season. After another 10 seconds, both sat back down again. That’s when Magic began to talk about Durant.
“Kevin is a great great player,” Magic began, “I really think he could win MVP one season. He just has to shine a little bit more. But even on this deep team we have, he still is the lone star on this team.”
Magic rambled on, “I think you are right to trade Tyson. We need Durant to be here and at his best. We have the best scorer in the NBA and I think he can help take us far.”
Magic continued to sing Durant’s praises for the rest of the night. Sit tried to block Magic out and thought to himself, Damn it! I’m stuck with another Kevin Durant lover.
“I told you,” Sit shouted into his phone, “Stop calling me.”
Isaiah Thomas was on the phone, “Come on Sit, give up!”
“You’re not getting Tyson.”
“Even though he only wants to play for the Knicks?”
“I already told you man,” Sit said frankly, “You don’t have the pieces that I’d be willing to take onto our team.”
“I can give you Ron Artest, Sebastian Telfair, a few picks here and there,” Thomas tried to bargain.
“You are officially wasting my time,” Sit was shaking his head.
“What about Lamar Odom and Luis Scola? That’s the classic two man combo in the paint that would make your team better.”
“I’m going to hang up now.”
Thomas continued to blabber on so Sit slammed the phone down, “He’s fucking retard!”
Sit’s secretary popped her head in to check on if everything was ok, “Are you looking for your credit card again?”
Sit sighed, “No…”
“Ok!” she smiled and went back out to work.
The phone rang again and Sit picked up, “If it’s Isaiah Thomas, tell him I’m busy.”
Sit’s secretary corrected him, “No. It’s actually Woody Hannes.”
“What’s he want?”
“Um…”
Sit was annoyed, “You’re not supposed to try and answer! It’s a rhetorical question.”
“A what?”
“Don’t worry! Just put him through please,” Sit was about to stab his secretary.
“Will Sit speaking.”
Woody Hannes liked to call a lot to try and get scoops but this time he was calling to break one.
“Hey Sit,” Woody said, “Have you heard the news?”