I remembered the country China and how the two guys Aki and Gin, who were also from China, gave me chills. I wondered if there were more players like those two in China. I"ve always had significant respect for China when it came to anything. No matter what, if they found something they liked, they worked three times harder than anyone to perfect it. We boarded a plane as Coach Andre told us that we don"t have a military base in China so that we would be staying in a hotel. I always wondered why the USA didn"t have a military branch in China, but that"s none of my business as I was just contracted to play basketball and not wonder why the USA didn"t have a base in China.
When we boarded the plane, Paige immediately kicked the person that was supposed to be sitting next to me. Paige made herself comfortable next to me as she held my hand and said," did you have fun last time with your new friend" she grabbed my junk, causing me to flinch.
I smiled at her and said, "thank you, but that"s probably the last time I"m going to drink before I end up in bed with several women that I don"t know, I have two ladies at home already I don"t think I can handle any more than three on top of that I don"t know if they have even accepted you yet."
Paige was surprised but convinced me that everything was going to be okay and that she will talk to my other two ladies once they meet. The flight wasn"t that long as China was close to j.a.pan. We arrived in no time and headed straight to our hotel rooms after getting our luggage.
China"s military basketball force had combined all their best players from the Air Force, Army, and Navy to make the best basketball team within that country, making them number one in the world. They had one guy who is taller than Yao Ming, and he was their main force as he was able to grab every rebound and block almost every shot.
The guy didn"t even have to jump off the ground to dunk it. I had done my research and saw multiple videos of their games, and I was quite impressed and thought this could be challenging. They also had several other good players, one guy who seems to be their shooting guard was making most of his shots from outside the three-point line. In contrast, their point guard did not shoot a single basket, but his pa.s.ses were extremely crazy and were on point as the ball always landed in the hands of whoever the point guard wanted it to go to every time.
The small forward and their power forward didn"t catch my attention too much as the others. I didn"t notice much from them, but their power forward was extremely buff, and when he got in the paint, it seemed like n.o.body could stop him as he dunks on everybody with relentless rage.
Now I knew why they were number one in the world and had won several cops for the China team. I thought about it and realized that maybe the Marines were the only ones that could keep up with these guys as they were just as strong or if not stronger than this team.
I continued to study the videos that Coach Andre had presented to me and thought that I would have to start this time around and carry the team throughout the whole game. I definitely won"t be driving it in the paint due to their tall center that was in the post.
I"ll probably be taking shots and trying to keep up with their shots. After I thought of a plan the next day during practice, Coach Andre asked us whether we reviewed the videos. We all nodded, but the rest of the team already knew how good China was, so Coach Andre looked at me and asked:" do you think we could pull this off?"
I nodded at him and said," I would have to start and play the whole game, on top of that I would need the help of every single player here to not only set picks but to take charges too." This was going to be an ugly game, and everybody needed to step it up, especially Blackpool, since he would be handling that monster of a center.
It seemed like Blackpool had a history with the center as he told me how last year that guy broke his spirit, and he had almost quit the game of basketball due to this guy, but Paige convinced him not to. I went up to Blackpool and slapped him in the back and said "we"re not going to lose at all, don"t ever think you will fail before the battle, or you will be selling yourself short before you even start.
I came here to win a cup; I didn"t come here to be timid and maybe win some games. I came here to win; no question asked," Everybody was shocked when they saw how aggressive I was and how serious I was about the game of basketball.
I hated it when people talked negatively without even trying. Coach Andre clapped his hands as he told everybody to calm down after everyone"s spirit had ignited. Coach Andre told us the game would be held later this week. After the little speech, everyone was fired up during our drills and practice.
The coach was writing up some new place for me; he had everybody practicing picks and taking charges mostly since I would be in the game for all four quarters. Coach Andre would have me in the center of all the plays; he even had me running a few plays with a bench team for when the starters get tired.
Coach Andre thought that I would get tired too, but I kept going thanks to my unlimited stamina. Coach Andre was quite impressed with my dedication as he did have a bit of confidence that we could win this game.