by Fresh8 on Wed Jan 26, 2011 10:21 am
Chapter 29
Aaron Karl stepped into the gym. Ty noticed him come in and walked up to Coach Karl to let him know. Karl turned around and saw the junior Karl; no relation of course. The other Stealth players noticed that Coach wasn’t watching them anymore and stopped their drill to see what was going on. Everyone noticed Aaron Karl. Aaron nodded to the assistants and laughed when Sheed made a joke about him.
“Aaron,” Coach reached out to him, “I think it would be good for you to tell your teammates what is happening. They’re all a little bit confused.”
Coach pulled Aaron’s head closer so that no one else could hear what he said next, “You screwed up son. I’m happy that you were man enough to fess up to it. I want you to get your life back on track.”
Aaron nodded and shook Coach’s hand as the rest of the team had gathered around them.
Aaron faced all of them, “Guys, I’ve just had a call from the head office in New York.”
The next part was tough and Aaron was trying hard not to cry in front of his friends, “… I’ve been kicked out of the NBA.”
“Why?” David Lee asked.
Aaron gulped and answered, “I was the player caught for that drug bust downtown.”
Allen Iverson was yelping, “I told y’all it wasn’t me y’know! I told all of y’all!”
The mood had just dampened with the news and Aaron made it clear that he would never be an NBA player again.
“I need to go to court,” Aaron said, “I’ve got a good attorney and I’ve admitted to all of this. I’m going to go to jail for a while. I’m not scared about that though – I’m just disappointed in myself for getting here now. I owe everyone here an apology.”
Jao Wu and Mingyu Li were the first ones to surround Aaron and console him as he began to break down in front of all of them. Everyone knew that this was the last time they’d see him as a teammate on the Stealth. It was a sad occasion for all.
Wu had his arm around his best friend on the team, “Man, if only I had known I would have done something to talk you out of it.”
“I was already in too deep,” Aaron told him, “I was already in too deep…”
His teammates came one by one to say goodbye and wishing him well.
Aaron went to the locker room to collect his stuff. He stood in front of his locker and stared at his name at the top of it.
“It took a lot of hard work to get here,” he said to himself and thinking What a waste.
“Why did you do it?”
Aaron turned around and it was Ty.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Ty put a hand on Aaron’s shoulder, “Man, you know everything I’ve been through. I do understand man.”
Aaron sighed and sat down. Ty pulled up a chair next to him.
“I guess that ever since Coach let Jason start for this team, I didn’t really feel valued,” Karl said, “I’ve been doing this stuff for a while but this season I wasn’t really getting the same minutes as before. I really got sick of basketball.”
“I don’t get it man,” Ty stated, “Why’d you turn to doing what you were doing?”
Aaron defended himself, “It seemed like a really good idea at the time. You know, I have a lot of money but not enough and my friends don’t have that either. This was a way for all of us to get rich together.”
Ty sounded a bit concerned, “So you did it because your friends were doing it?”
“These guys are my closest friends and I guess I was greedy,” Aaron explained, “Look – I was a bit worried the first time but after the first sale went well, I sort of thought it was easy and then I guess I got greedy. It was risky but the rewards were really huge.”
Ty tried to let it all sink in, “Man…”
“I screwed up man,” Aaron admitted, “There’s no real logical explanation. I’m just saying…”
Ty nodded, “I know.”
Ty was also curious, “Did Wu ever get involved in this?”
Aaron was quick to shoot that down, “No way man. Jao never knew about any of this!”
Ty believed him, “Good.”
Aaron got up and picked up his bags, “Take care man. Don’t let Kevin make you his bitch.”
Aaron walked out of the locker room and into the gym one last time. He watched for a minute. The team was running a scrimmage. He smiled as a tear rolled down his left cheek. He wiped it away with the back of his hand then turned and left. That was the end of Aaron Karl’s short-lived NBA career.
* * *
Kevin Durant high fived his teammates, who walked past the bench and towards the tunnel. He was nodding and pouting as he walked towards the basket to be interviewed by Cheryl Miller. Michael Beasley had intercepted him before he got to Miller.
“Good game,” Beasley congratulated Durant.
Durant gave him a high five, “You too.”
Miller and her cameraman walked up to Durant, “Kevin, your team was brilliant tonight. What were the keys to the win?”
The pro-Miami crowd booed as Durant replied, “We just played great defence and pulled out all the stops. There’s no secrets to an ass-whooping like tonight’s. My boy Wade told me before the game that they were going to surprise everyone but I guess the best team in the league prevailed.”
“How’s it feel to have win number eight?”
Durant laughed, “There’s more wins if you don’t know how it feels right now. We still got a lot of basketball left and I am going to make sure that my team gets that number one record in the league.”
“Any last words?” Miller felt obliged to give Durant the opportunity.
“You know me too well,” Durant smiled and looked straight down the camera lens, “This is my team baby!”
George Karl was being interviewed by press outside the visitor’s locker room.
“As I said, we are winning because we are playing team basketball. We’re getting it done on both ends of the floor,” Karl said.
“Coach, what’s the loss of Aaron Karl mean for your team?”
“No comment.”
“Coach, what can you tell us about the form of Kevin Durant?”
“You can see the numbers and the performances. He is really playing with a lot of confidence right now.”
“Coach, would you rate him as a legit MVP candidate?”
“Why not?” Karl asked back.
There was an awkward silence.
Karl continued, “He is the best pure scorer in this league. I’ve coached Carmelo and I can tell you right now and on the record that Kevin is a lot more versatile and more of a pure scorer than Melo is. I love Melo but Kevin is the better offensive player. He’s an MVP in my books.”
“Coach, are you happy that the season is back on track?”
“Is that too obvious of a question with a really obvious answer?” Karl laughed, “I think it is.”
The Knicks crowd was silent as their team were trailing by 14 points in the final quarter. Seattle had easily controlled this game from the start and were in cruise control till the end of the game. Former Stealth guard Sebastian Telfair missed an open three point attempt. Travis Ward swallowed up the rebound and dunked the ball on the second chance attempt. Some of the fans were cheering but nowhere near as many as when Ty had dunked over Lamar Odom a few minutes earlier. This game had been pretty tame except for one incident in the third quarter when Ron Artest and Durant had to be separated. Artest had cupped his hand around Durant’s throat, throwing the officials into immediate action and calming both benches down.
“Come on,” Artest was talking trash to Durant on the other end of the floor, “You think you can get past me. You can’t handle me.”
Durant ignored him and pulled up for a jumper. It was good. He turned and ran down the court. Artest was right behind him so he let Artest catch up to him.
“That’s 40 bitch,” Durant put up four fingers into Artest’s face.
Artest reached out and pushed Durant’s hand away from his face.
“You hear me? That’s 40!” Durant bumped into him on purpose up the floor.
Artest was pissed and grabbed the back of Durant’s jersey. Durant came to a sudden halt and stuck his leg out. Artest tripped over it, face first into the hardwood. The Stealth bench were in hysterics while the Knicks bench were out of their seats and waving their arms in protest. Play was stopped and the officials warned both Durant and Artest about their behaviour. It was their last chance before both would be tossed.
“Take of Reshawn,” Coach Karl said to Adam Morrison.
Morrison got up and pulled off his track pants and jacket. He hopped over to the scorers’ table and sat down. He was joined by Iverson and Mingyu Li.
“Watch for the pass!” Bogut called out to Ty on defence.
Ty saw the telegraphed pass from Bassy to Luis Scola in the paint. He quickly pivoted backwards and bolted in towards the paint. With his right arm extended, he tried to block the pass.
“FUCK!”
The ball was knocked downwards and although it bounced a few times at Ty’s feet, he did not reach for it. Bassy swooped in and grabbed it. He dribbled around Ty and went for the layup. It was a miss and Bogut grabbed the board. Bogut passed it to Kidd who dribbled up the court. Ty was bending over and holding his right hand. He winced in pain. Play continued on the other end. Ty grimaced and now ran towards the Stealth bench.
“Time out!” Coach Karl was shouting to the ref, “Time out!”
Ty didn’t stop at the Stealth bench and continued to run to the tunnel, through to the change rooms. Knicks fans were peering over the safety barriers and railings to get a closer look at Ty running off the court. Ty was joined by stadium security as the Stealth team trainer followed close behind.