All We've Got Is Basketball (Blake Griffin FanFic)

Chapter 89

I slid on my jersey in the locker room, looking at the yellow and purple jersey that had been my best friend the past year. I kept re-checking my outfit as Blake wrapped his buff arms around my waist. "You look great," Blake smiled to me in the mirror and I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. Blake and I were the only ones in the locker room, as we heard the people stomping and screaming as the stadium continued to fill up.

"It feels like forever," I said, feeling the fabric on my jersey. Blake kissed my cheek, and I turned around, lacing our fingers together and looked into his eyes. "Look..."

"Save it," Blake interrupted me, giving me a smile, "it's gonna bother me that you're with him... But I know you had no choice. You guys are best friends anyways. I'll be right there on the floor, first row, cheering your team on." I gave him a big hug, and he held me there for longer than expected. "You know I love you more than anything, right?" He pulled me out of our hug and kissed me multiple times. "You'll do great," Blake went for the door out of the locker room, and blew me a couple kisses.

"I love you!" I called to him as he went to go get his seat. I took a deep breath, and twirled the big diamond on my ring in my fingers. I didn't want to take it off. I tried to calm my nerves that didn't work. It was just like a normal basketball game, right? No, thousands of more people, this was all star weekend. I pushed through the locker room doors and made it out towards the court. People were asking my for pictures and autographs as the court came into view. Wow, this is a huge stadium. The crowd at first overwhelmed me, but I found where all the participants were seated and I found my assigned seat in between Russell, and the other player on our team, Scottie Pippen. Scottie turned to smile at me and stuck out his hand. He was huge, I had never met a retired NBA AllStar before so this feeling was quite surreal.

"Hey, I'm Scottie, and you're Morgan Rowland, correct?" I could feel the tension between Russell and I but I pushed it aside.

"Yes, that's me," I grabbed his hand and shook it eagerly. He smiled at my enthusiasm, "you have no idea how surreal it is to meet you. It's incredible." He smiled with pride at my reaction to his presence and I could tell it made him happy. It was amazing that one of the greatest NBA stars knew my name.

"Well, it's incredible to meet the WNBA Rookie Of The Year in the flesh," he guffawed and I smiled with pride. It was nothing compared to his career achievements. The WNBA was one thing, the NBA; an entire other ball game. "Hopefully you can lead Team Westbrook to a win today, just you as a player has increased the views and fans of the WNBA last season. Of course, that's a lot to live up to this upcoming season." I had never thought about that. All the expectations from rookie year would go into my next year. People expected way more. More improvement, more skill. People were watching for me. The announcer began speaking, and Scottie turned away from me to listen. I sat there, my heart beating a mile per second. Suddenly, all my priorities were set straight. What had I been doing? Practice needed to be done. Skills needed to improve. New skills needed to be adapted into my game. The season was only three months off. That only meant three months of practice. I took my mind off the thought in a hurry. Russell was bent down, sitting in the chair next to me, fixing his shoe.

"You ready?" I asked him, and he looked up, making sure I was talking to him. He just added as shrug and went back down to his shoe. "Is everything okay?" He looked back up to me and gave me that "really?" face.

"I don't know, is it Morgan?" He asked, shaking his head. Back down to the shoe. I opened my mouth to speak, but he stopped me. "We can talk later, if Blake doesn't beat my face in first." I looked across the court to see Blake sitting next to Chris, Matt only a few seats down. Blake was staring directly at us. I waved to Blake and added a charming smile, and Blake mocked me, then mouthed something to me that I couldn't make out.