Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Chapter 199 - A Big Day

The entire stadium was packed to the brim. From courtside to the nosebleeds there were fans wearing their teams' jersey as a show of support.

The scoreboard read 105 to 104 as the Los Angeles Lakers trailed the Portland Trail Blazers. The clock showed that there was only forty seconds left in the game.

The bright lights of the arena beamed down on Kyle as he was breathing heavily. He looked out at the crowd 'There are so many people here. And there's probably millions more watching the game from their homes.

This is game seven and we're down by one. It's win or go home time. Can we really do this? Can we really bring home the chip?'

Just as worry and doubt were beginning to fill his mind a familiar voice managed to clear his thoughts "Let's do this Kyle."

Kyle looked to the front of him and smiled after seeing Jason's usual cold demeanor 'There's no reason for me to be worried. Not as long as he's here.'

Kyle nodded his head before he threw the inbound pass to Jason. Jason caught the ball and started making his way up the court.

His slow pace and relaxed body language denied the existence of any tension or nervousness that most people would assume to be present.

The sense of nonchalance that he exuded would make any watcher think that this was a possession in the beginning of a regular season game in the middle of the year rather than the potentially champion deciding possession that it actually was.

By the time that he managed to cross half court over five seconds had passed. He began to instruct his teammates to clear the floor as he called for an isolation play.

On the sidelines was the Trailblazers head coach. He was going red in the face as he yelled out to his players with everything that he had.

"Double him! Double him!" "Twos are okay but don't give up any threes! Don't foul the shooters!" "No easy points! We just need to keep the lead!"

As Jason began to work on his defender one of the players from the opposing team left his defensive assignment alone on the right wing in order to double team Jason.

Just as the other defender was halfway toward Jason he faked a pass chest pass to his open teammate on the right wing.

The pass fake was enough to catch the attention of both defenders for a split second. At the last second Jason flicked his right wrist in order to change the trajectory of the ball.

Instead of the ball flying to his open teammate on the right wing the ball bounced against the floor a few feet ahead of Jason.

Jason ran toward the ball. As he regained control of the ball he began to drive toward the paint. With Jason attacking the basket the Center had no choice but to move up in order to try and contest his shot.

Jason saw the massive seven footer (2.13m) coming toward him but instead of hesitating or changing directions he picked up his dribble as he then jumped into the air.

The seven footer saw Jason jump into the air and did the same. But instead of shooting a layup Jason tossed the ball to the side of the basket.

Fan and commentator alike both turned their attention to the location where Jason had tossed the ball to.

Right at that moment Kyle's long outstretched arm showed up. 'It's so far away! Can I reach it? No! I can't doubt myself! I have to go far it!'

Kyle had jumped off of his two feet with everything that he had. As he looked at the ball that seemed so far away he stretched his hand out as far as he could.

He was stretching his arm out so far that he felt like he was going to pop his shoulder out of place. As his body reached the peak of his jump he just barely managed to catch the ball in his hand.

Kyle was still a fair distance away from the basket as his body began to descend 'No time to think. Just do it!'

As he swung his arm down he could feel some contact as one of the players from the opposing team tried to block his shot.

The defenders hand hit Kyle in the side of his face but he didn't care. His eyes were locked on to the basket.

The fully packed arena was silent as the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the referee blowing his whistle.

As Kyle's body continued to fall back toward the ground his fingers just barely grazed the rim as he threw the ball down toward the basket with authority.

The ball swished through the net powerfully. Kyle and the defender collided while they were in the air which caused them to fall to the floor.

'I made it? I MADE IT!' Before he could even fully come to accept that he had made the shot Jason had ran his way toward him.

He was playfully punching him in the chest with a huge smile on his face "You did Kyle! You fucking did it bro!"

He then pulled him up and helped him to stand up. As Jason ruffled his hair Kyle began to cry "We did Jaya! We did it!

We're champions! We got the ring! We did it Jaya! We did it!" Before he could wipe the tears from his eyes a loud beeping sound caught his attention.

Kyle turned toward Jason who still had a huge smile on his face "Did you hear that Jaya?" Jason asked "Hear what?"

Kyle replied "I heard a really loud beeping sound." The beeping sound came back which caused Kyle to jump back "That! That's the sound I was talking about."

Kyle turned his head back toward Jason but now the smile from his face was gone and he was a lot shorter and looked a lot younger.

"Wake up Kyle. Wake up dude we're going to be late." Kyle had a confused expression on his face. He looked down at himself and noticed that he was shorter now too.

He saw his image on the jumbotron and saw that he looked like a little kid just like Jason "Huh? We're going to be late for what?"

Just then an intense bright light filled his vision. The intensity of the light was so high that Kyle had no choice but to close his eyes.

After blinking a few times his blurry vision cleared up. Instead of the Staples Center he was laying down in his bed back at the hotel.

He rubbed his face with his hands a few times before turning to the side where Jason was "Huh? It was just a dream?"

Jason tossed a tube of toothpaste to Kyle as he started to brush his own teeth "Hurry up bro. We still need to eat breakfast before the van comes to pick us up.

It would be lame as fuck to be late on our first day bro. Brush your teeth and toss on some sweats." Kyle got up from his bed and started to stretch.

After a big yawn he felt a lot more awake "UHHHH man. Yesterdays game must have been harder on me than I thought.

I haven't slept that good in a while." Jason chuckled as he shifted his toothbrush to the side so that he could talk.

"I don't think that yesterday's game was any bit harder than usual. It's just that our bodies are kinda rusty from not having been in any serious games in a while.

Now hurry up and get ready. We need to show up to the camp and make sure they know that Riverside is serious business."