The rise of the Basket God

The underlying truth

"Yup, the game wasn't really worth watching. What's your name kid?" Ryan interrupted Wesley.

"Now you're done for, insulting a team in the present of its legend." Wesley thought smiling sheepishly.

"The name is Ryan, Jeff Ryan" The boy answered.

"Oops, You're Ryan also? I'm also Ryan, Ayoze Ryan" Ayoze Ryan said to the teenage boy.

"Well you can call me Jeff then so it doesn't sound awkward" The boy replied with a silly smile.

"Okay Jeff sounds pretty cool. So Jeff can you tell me what you noticed during the game." Ryan asked.

"Well the other team are not so good and should have lost badly if the home team played well or better than that guy called Seth something. But ironically he was the one with the best performance hence there devastating loss. Neal or whatever he's called I really have a bad impression about him. I have never played the game before but I'm certain I'll play better than he played today on my first try." Jeff replied.

"How old are you Jeff?" Ryan asked out of the blue.

The kid was a little bit confused but still answered anyway "seventeen"

"Neal you hear that even a seventeen years old boy that has never played the game before knew you played a really bad game. That's really far from what I expected from you" Ryan said looking directly into his phone. It was then they knew that Ryan was FaceTiming Neal. Get over here tomorrow okay?" Ryan said hanging up the phone.

"Will you come around tomorrow by 4pm?" He asked Jeff.

"Hmm.. Yeah sure" Jeff replied.

"Okay I'll show you something" Ryan said leaving the restaurant Main hall.

"okay" Jeff said before also heading out of the restaurant

"Can I tag along I'll be off by then" Wesley said running after Ryan

"No" He replied sternly

"No?.. please say yes" Wesley pleaded

"No.."

"Please" He wore a face that you really wouldn't want to say no to. Similar to a lost cat.

"Alright yes" Ryan finally agreed to his request.

"Yay" Wesley was happy. He'll be seeing Neal and Ryan tomorrow. Of course he has been seeing Ryan but he might be seeing him playing the basketball with his bare eyes live and not on the screen tomorrow. And who knows which other Eezee Net player will be coming over.

****************

"Hey you really shouldn't have talked to Neal in such a manner you should understand he's going through a lot" Lena said Seeing Ryan walking towards her direction.

"He needs it. It won't be a good thing if he loses focus and that's what they want. Because to them having him around is the same as having a mini portion of me around." Ryan replied taking off his coat and sitting on the sofa beside Lena.

"You still haven't told me about what went wrong with you guys. You were all good buddies before forming the team. Forming the team should further deepen the bond and not sever it" Lena said adjusting herself so that the now lay on Ryans chest forcing him to also lie down on the sofa as she looks directly into his eyes.

"I also don't know what went wrong. We worked collectively in the first two season, we had a great result were unstoppable but suddenly in the third season I felt like it was Only myself, Neal and Nate were on the same team. Like the others were slowly drifting apart from us I mean Toni, Chris and Tim. The team now sort of has those who support me and others who supports Them. The third season ended in us losing the regular but we were still able to clinch the final victory which is the playoff championship. Nate could not continue playing any longer he felt the team was divided and decided to retire from the competition." Ryan Explained.

"How come I never knew about any of this?" Lena asked.

"I thought I had it in control I talked to Toni and Chris about it but they denied it. In the fourth season, I just couldn't put the team together any longer. Of the twelve players in the team only Neal and the new rookie Paul Walters were on my side. Every other player just wouldn't listen to me. The team was cracked and was slowly falling apart. I told Sim about it and he told me he was going to talk to them" Ryan continued.

"But instead he sold Toni off at the end of the fourth season and I was labeled the bad guy for it. Toni even told the press I made Eezee Net push him out of the team." Ryan added

"So were you able to unify the team" Lena asked.

"It got worst. Chris and Tim expressed their unwillingness to remain in the club and of course you knew what happened they left the team to join Grip clippers. So I was left with some bunch of amateurs and rookies making it difficult for us to progress the semi final became our final destination and we had to struggle to in the regular season." Ryan replied.

"But it was not so obvious to the fans. Because the team was still doing well." Lena said.

"I had to give more than what I have been giving to the team before. Neal and Paul had to work their ass off to avoid my wrath that was how we still managed to stay at the top." Ryan replied.

"But then the team decided to buy Seth Travis and they also brought Toni back to the competition. I was told by one of those bunch of amateurs that I'll be leaving them soon when I was training with them at the start of the season and here I am out of the team. They finally decided to choose Toni over me seeing how he delivered with the Raptors."