The Final Shot

Chapter 1: The Four

Michael lived with his father, who was definitely a Kareem addict. Anything in the house was either the Lakers' purple and gold, or the Bucks' green and white. There were no family pictures in the house, just framed pictures of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar using his Sky Hook again and again. While some fathers would go fishing or gaming with their sons, Michael's dad taught him how to play basketball. When he was old enough to hold a ball, his father gave him it, telling him to practice. His father wanted him to play centre like Kareem, but Coach Auerbach let him play the four saying that he was more suited to play power forward. Michael's last name was Walter, so his full name was Michael Walter. The name Michael Walter carries a lot of significance around the city and even in the state. Anyone who played basketball knew who he was. Fortunately, not everyone knew what he looked like. At university, he was mediocre at most subjects but physical education and language. For some reason, he always managed to write like a genius. Most of his classmates were friendly with him but only Jake Kidd was his best friend. It made sense to Michael. He needed the point guard to be on good terms with him, otherwise he can't make shots. His other friend was Alex Parker, who everyone called Lex. Lex couldn't play basketball well enough to make the team but he helped the teams in other ways. He helped them keep track of their statistics, their opponents statistics, and was practically an assistant coach. Lex also helped everyone analyse what they needed to improve on. For example, for Michael, he analysed that Michael needed to work on rebounding and shooting outside of the paint. Michael was a great perimeter defender and could pass the ball around but he found it difficult to grab rebounds. Lex had analyzed that if the Braves didn't start working on rebounds, they were in big trouble. Last year, the Braves had made it to the conference semifinals but had lost to the Penguins. In total, in that seven-game series, the Braves had allowed the Penguins to grab 25.1 offensive rebounds a game, which then led to 42.3 points off of the offensive rebounds a game. It wasn't exactly a great statistic. Michael went to the university gym to practice every single day during the summer on how to rebound. He was optimistic about his rebounding this year. Their whole starting lineup would become stronger this year. The rumour was that the new kid who was named Earvin "King" Brant would come to their university. He would be playing small forward, which would seriously help the team. Michael was the captain of the team while Jake was the vice captain. Only Michael was an All-Star and an All-State player. Another thing to look up for was the "sharpshooter" that the Coach promised would convince to join the team. His name was Carl Allen and he would be their shooting guard. Their team would be a powerhouse this year, with Michael as a power forward, Jake as the point guard, Carl as the shooting guard, and King as the small forward. Michael promised himself that his team would make the Finals this year. Go Braves!