SPLASH! 

As I slowly came to consciousness, I saw bright, glowing stars moving around in different directions.
“Am I in heaven?” I asked myself. That was my last thought before I blanked out.
When I woke up, I found myself being carried of the court in a stretcher. A few of my teammates and my assistant coach were assisting me off the court. The game was still going on, but my team had just lost our best player, me. My name is Jamal Griffin. I am a seventh grader who has short black hair. I look up to Steph Curry, a great point guard in the NBA. My goal is to follow his footsteps and make it into the NBA. Unfortunately for me, I just got injured in one of the biggest games in my life so far. It was the fourth quarter with 30 seconds left in the game. We were down one, and the other team had the ball. We were playing our rival team in the last game of the regular season. They are our rivals because they are our neighboring city, Brintletown and they also were hard competitors in every sport. Back to the game. I remembered that we were in a full court press. We were trying to get a steal because unlike the NBA, there is no shot clock. I was guarding the inbounder, the person who throws the ball in from out of bounds. I did great guarding him, because he almost couldn’t throw it in but he finally managed to get it in to one of his teammates. My immediate reaction was to trap the guy with the ball. One of my teammates also came to help. The guy with the ball on the other team lost control of the ball. When that happened, all four of us, me, the guy on the other team who had just lost the ball, the inbounder, and my teammate Joseph, all dove for the ball at the same time. I got to it first as the other three piled on top of me. I felt my head bang on the floor. The next thing I heard was a loud pop. I stayed down, against the hardwood floor, as my coach came over to help me. I started to black out. At first, my vision got blurry. Next, I started to lose my hearing ability. After all of that, I blacked out. I couldn’t see the rest of the game because I was in the locker room, getting medical treatment and checkups. After the game, I asked Joseph,
“What happened in the game after I left?”
“Dang dude, you couldn’t even move. We had to lift you up onto the stretcher. I think you had like a mild concussion or something. After you left, the ref said that we get the ball. So we inbounded it, stalled until there was 5 seconds left in the game, and at that instant, Andrew (the second best player on the team) did a nasty crossover on his guy, who fell down, and drove for a layup. Unfortunately for us, he got cut off by the other team’s big man who just stood there and looked big. Andrew went right into him, and the ref called a charge and the buzzer rang and we lost by 1 point.” he answered. After that moment, I swore that we wouldn’t lose to them in the championship game. There were ten teams in the league. Only four teams make the playoffs. We, Danville, are the first seed, our rivals, Brintletown, are the second seed (so we will only play them in the finals), Parktown is the third seed, and the last seed is Brookville. We play Brookville and our rivals play Parktown in the first round of the playoffs. In the condition I am in right now, I might be able to make it to the Brookville game, which is next week (we have games every Sunday). According to the medical person, one of my teammates parents, I did have a concussion like Joseph said. I’m not allowed to do any physical activity for 3 more days, just in case. That means I can’t do contact drills (which is basically everything we do) at our practice on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. As the week passed on, my concussion symptoms improved. By Thursday, I was able to do contact drills and scrimmage normally. On Fridays, we have no practice. On Saturday, there is no scheduled practice, but on days before important games, my team gathers at a park which has outdoor basketball courts. The doctor said I would be able to play in this Sunday’s game. I told my team the news on Saturdays, and everyone became excited and energized. At the beginning of our practice, we did a couple of drills and scrimmaged for about half an hour. For the rest of practice, we were just hanging loose, shooting around, and having fun. The next day crept up on me like a spider onto a web full of flies.
It was 34-28 Brookville at the half. I couldn’t believe that we were losing to the fourth seed! I decided to calm myself, and fight back in the second half. I started off with a rusty start, only having 6 points at the half. I had some assists and rebounds, but I hadn’t contributed like I usually do. When the second half started, I started to find my shooting stroke. Soon, I caught fire. I made my first four shots, and made two free throws. The other team had the ball, I picked their point guard’s pocket (stole the ball from him) and drove for an easy layup. On the next possession, I got a block and went all the way for another layup. The two possessions after that they scored, but I answered. Splash. Two 3-pointers on back to back plays for us. I got another steal, drove across the court, got fouled and made two free throws. The other team’s coach was infuriated called time-out. We were up by 6 points. After the time-out, the other team started double teaming me whenever I got the ball. That started giving my teammates open looks but they were ice cold and couldn’t make anything. The other team started coming back. The third quarter ended, the game tied at 48. Our coach gave us a little pep talk before the fourth quarter started. He said,
“This is where we fight our hardest. Bit by bit, we have to try to pull away from them and put this game away. Let’s get a break!”
“One, two, three, HARDWORK!” we all yelled. As the fourth quarter started, both teams were on fire. Both of us made our first five shots. It was tied 60-60 with two minutes left in the game. Then our team became ice cold. Everyone, except for me. They scored on back to back plays. Now we were down 5. I decided to put the game into my own hands. On our next possession, I drilled a 3 with my man in my face. Soon after that, I got a steal and an easy layup. Finally, I dished a beautiful pass to Will, who made an easy jumpshot. Now, their shooting guard caught fire. He made back to back 3 pointers and we were down by 2 with 3 seconds left. Our coach called time-out. He told us,
“They probably have decided to double team Jamal if he gets the ball, so what we have to do is run him of two picks, suddenly, he cuts to the baseline three point area by surprise and take the shot. But remember, if anyone is open on the play, throw it to them and shoot it.”
We ran this exact play, but there was one factor which got changed from the play our coach made, the other team triple teamed me. So, I thought out of the box and changed the play. Instead of running past both picks, I ran past one of them, then cut out to the top of the key 3 point area. Will, the inbounder, threw the ball to me. Catch and shoot. Splash. As the buzzer went off, we won by 1 point. I was at the bottom of a dogpile, with my whole team on me. It felt like I was a tiny pebble, under a a ton of boulders.  After we all got up, we went and shook hands with the other team. Win or lose, you have to have good sportsmanship.
The next day at practice, we were all celebrating. I told my team not to get to cocky. We had learned that our rivals had also won their game, so it would be us vs them in the finals. A perfect time for revenge. The week went on normally. We were doing the usual drills at practice, practicing plays, and doing some conditioning. As Sunday approached, we got more and more excited. A little to excited. On Friday, we were playing a pickup game of basketball at the park. We were playing just for fun, fooling around, when Brian, the starting center on our team, blocked Will really hard and yelled,
“GET THAT STUFF OUT OF MY HOUSE!” The next thing we saw, was Will going down in pain, holding his wrist.
At the next practice, Will came to practice wearing a cast on his arm. Will told us that he had gone to the doctor after our pickup game yesterday because his hand hurt and the doctor said he had broke his wrist. Our whole team became as silent as a funeral for one of our relatives.. Saturday’s practice turned from a happy and fun practice, to a slow and sad practice. Everyone felt bad for will. I told my teammates not to be so down, that we have to be confident for our championship game tomorrow. When practice ended, we all signed Will’s cast and he told us he would come to our game tomorrow for sure.
Sunday came, and we were playing the second best team, and we had lost our second best player and only had a total of 9 people. The good thing is that we didn’t let the loss of Will affect our play. At the half, we were up 42-31. Before the game, we said we would win this one for Will. That is what we did until halftime. When the third quarter started, everything started to go wrong. The first 4 possessions we had, we turned it over and it resulted as easy layups for the other team. We were only up by 3. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got ourselves a game! Now, it was our turn. We went on our own 8-0 run. I made 6 of those 8 points with two 3-pointers. We dominated the rest of the third quarter. We were up 56-45 as the fourth quarter started. As the fourth quarter started, my dream game started turning into my nightmare. They scored 15 straight points when I wasn’t playing (coach decided to give me a rest). Coach called time-out and clearly looked furious. He put in all of the starters. We had to rebuild our lead. Finally, we had tied the game at 62 with one minute remaining in the game. The other team had the ball. Their point guard dribbled the ball up the court. It was going to be one of those really close games again. They passed it around until there was 30 seconds left in the game. Then something totally unexpected happened. The point guard of the other team caught the ball, and drove straight by me for a layup. I just stood there, looking like a complete idiot. I told my teammates to inbound the ball to Joseph, not me. I called for the ball with 15 seconds left. They didn’t double team me. I decided to take the game into my own hands, again. At the 5 second mark, I did a double crossover and a spin move and my man fell down. I shot the 3-pointer with one second left. Bucket. I wanted to say,
“Who looks like an idiot now?” to the point guard from the other team, but I decided to have good sportsmanship after a game like this. We shook hands with the other team and my coach came and told me,
“ That was a game.”