The Final Shot

Chapter 4: The Catalyst

Jake Kidd might not be the best player on the team, and he might not be the most important player for the Braves, either. Instead, he was the person who made sure that everything would work all right together. He was like the general, who commands everyone. The moment Michael Walter had met him when they were in third grade, he knew that he would be the person who worked behind the scenes. He would be the guy who worked in the background, making sure everything was good for the star to go on set. Lex had told him that he had the highest APG in the team, with an APG of 9.4, and his assists were valuable to the team. According to Lex, whenever Jake had 9 or more assists, the Braves had a 89.32% chance of winning the game. It didn't matter to Jake. All he wanted was to win, no matter what he had to do. If you told him that if he became a rotation player their team would win, he would do it. Jake knew his job and was quite adept at it. Jake had also created a new style of play with Michael, which only they knew how to do. They even had a secret signal for it. Either one of them would tap their head with their palm facing out and then the next play would be their style. Their style was a really unique style of play where their teammates set a double screen for them and then they get in the paint. Jake finds a way to pass the ball to Michael and then Michael takes a fake shot. Michael passes it to Jake, who passes it to the fifth player who was ignored. Assuming the fifth player was great at shooting, the team would get points. Many people had assumed that Jake was only so good at passing because Michael taught him, but that was only half correct. Jake had been taught by Michael to cooperate with him, but Jake had also watched many tapes of the greatest passers of all time like John Stockton and Magic Johnson. He would watch their passes, and then he would practice them by trying to use it whenever he played with Michael the next time. He had started off not so good, sometimes making the ball accidentally hit the opponent, but eventually it got more and more smooth. After that, he started to take his next step. Jake started trying to pass to different players as well, and saw he could land them in a good position. He had always tried his best to create plays, and most of the time they worked. There were books about plays, but Jake didn't like them. He wanted to make his own so that no one would see it coming. It would be a surprise. As long as they got the championship, Jake didn't mind what type of play he would use. For the state championship!