by Fresh8 on Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:12 pm
Chapter 29
“Strained groin,” the team doctor pouted as he looked at the report from the specialist, “Looks like you’re going to be out a while Ty.”
Reshawn Tyson was sitting funny, trying to avoid the pain. He sat practically still as he listened to the doctor. It seemed like he would have a while to recover and a lot of physio sessions.
“Six weeks they say here,” the doctor continued, “This ain’t looking good. The team will need you.”
Ty tried to calculate when he’d likely be back, “So this means I wouldn’t be back by the playoffs? Will I miss any playoff games?”
The doctor grimaced, “There’s a pretty good possibility of that. You don’t want to rush back, the body needs time to heal.”
Ty was disturbed, “Do you realize how hard it is to walk?”
The doctor half-joked, “Try telling that to Dwight Howard.”
Ty threw his towel onto the ground and hit the side of the seat he was sitting in. The NBA cleared Howard of any wrong-doing and now Ty was the only one who would suffer the consequences of an ugly foul. “Six weeks? This is amazing!” Ty thought to himself.
A 15 point loss the night before did not dampen the morale of the Stealth camp. The Knicks had just somehow won on Stealth home soil yet Kevin Durant and George Karl were laughing and joking; it was an unexpected sight. The team was in New York to play the Knicks for the second straight night and Seattle was practicing in a small gym. They had just finished their scrimmages and the players decided to stretch to warm down after practice.
George Karl was pleased with his side, “Guys, we have done a fabulous job to get where we are now. Let’s not get complacent though and finish the season strong.”
Karl left with his coaching staff, leaving the majority of the playing group behind. Kevin Durant scanned around and smiled. Reshawn Tyson had not traveled to New York with the team so he was the only player missing.
“Let’s get those suckers back tonight,” Durant nodded to Andrew Bogut.
Bogut strolled over to Durant and gave him a high five, “Yeah boy. I’m hitting the showers.”
Raja Bell chimed in, “You the man KD.”
Jason Kidd was icing his knees on the sideline; Karl had allowed Kidd to sit out practice. He yelled something over to Durant.
Durant didn’t hear him, “huh?”
Kidd shouted back, “I want to see you score 50 tonight!”
Durant laughed, “I will try my best.”
Ty was walking very slowly. Sit looked behind him and saw Ty struggling. He stopped and waited for Ty to catch up.
“You alright man?”
Ty waved Sit away, “Sure am.”
Sit began walking at a much slower pace, “The guys won’t be expecting us at the game tonight. It’s good that you decided that you wanted to come too.”
“It was going to be boring staying indoors,” Ty admitted, “Plus I needed some fresh air.”
Sit couldn’t wait to get to Madison Square Garden, “It’s going to be a great game tonight.”
Ty just snorted and Sit ignored him. Two of the team’s staff was waiting for the pair just outside the airport. They then escorted both of them to a waiting car, which would take them to the game.
Meanwhile, George Karl was going through his game plan once again with his assistant coaches on the team bus. Kevin Durant, Andrew Bogut, Raja Bell, and Jason Kidd were all on the same bus that had left earlier than the second bus.
“I’m feeling it tonight,” Durant announced to his team mates.
Bell pointed at Durant, “We better be seeing a big game from you tonight kid!”
Bogut said, “Madison Square Garden – I love playing there.”
As they rolled into the back of the arena, Durant was about to add something when the bus suddenly jolted forward then backwards as the driver slammed down on the breaks.
“Whoa! What was with that?” Durant exclaimed.
The second team bus had overtaken the first bus and parked right in front of them. Durant and his teammates rushed to the front of their bus to see the other players jump out of the second bus in front of them. Durant and Bogut started laughing when they saw Sebastian Telfair leap out of the side of the bus and run off to the side. Telfair leaned one arm on the wall and bowed over. He then threw up.
“Oh man!” one of the team’s training staff stated, “That’s nasty!”
One by one, the other players jumped out of the second bus. The coaching staff from the first bus quickly got out to check on Telfair. Durant couldn’t stop laughing and sprinted off the bus and ran towards the second bus.
“What’s up with Bassy?” Durant yelled over to Trevor Ariza and DJ White who were jumping up and down in excitement.
Ariza had the widest grin, “Man! We had one dope bus driver!”
“Did you us overtake you at the end? Man, that was awesome!” David Lee yelled.
“Who was driving the bus?” Durant wanted to know.
“Me!” Rasheed Wallace jumped out of the bus.
George Karl was marching towards them and yelling, “Who the fuck let you drive the fucking bus? Where the fuck is the bus driver?”
Sheed saw Karl turned to Durant and said, “Got to go!”
White yelled to Karl, “Coach, the bus driver is inside. He let Sheed drive. It wasn’t me.”
The rest of the players bolted for the entrance to the stadium. Durant and Karl were the only ones left outside.
“You need to get your guys in line,” Karl shook his head at Durant and they proceeded to hop onto the bus that Sheed had hijacked.
They looked to the back of the bus and saw the bus driver bound and gagged in the backseat. Karl was furious.
“Rasheed!!!”
The game was a close affair but Ty was not having a great time. Half of the team pretended that he was not even around. The worst part was that he could not be on the floor to play. Allen Iverson pushed the ball up the floor and dimed up Vince Carter for a dunk. Kidd dribbled the ball back up and returned the favor by hitting Durant with a nice pass, resulting in a made three pointer. The Stealth bench was on their feet, cheering for their leader to continue his nice scoring run. Ty was in a suit and clapping as he chewed gum.
“Man, Kevin is killing it!” Rocky said to Ty.
Ty ignored him.
Rocky patted him on the shoulder, “Come on man, cheer up!”
As Durant connected on another jumper to reach 31 points, Ty looked around nervously. He did not want to see his father again. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was one of the team trainers.
“Ty, there’s a fan who wants to see you.”
Ty slowly got up and followed him towards the tunnel that led to the change rooms.
“He’s over there,” the trainer pointed.
Ty looked ahead and saw him. It was his father.
“Son!”
Ty tried to turn around but his father had run up and grabbed his arm, “Son, I really need your help.”
The team trainer sensed that he had made a mistake, “Excuse me sir, you got to get your hands off of him.”
“I can do what I want! He’s my son!” Mr Tyson bellowed then kicked at the trainer.
Ty turned and faced his father, “Get your hands off of me!”
The older Tyson let go.
“Security!” the team trainer yelled.
Sit had seen the commotion from the Stealth bench and ran over to see what was wrong, “Ty, is everything ok?”
“Son, I really am sorry,” Mr Tyson spoke over Sit, “I came just to see you.”
Ty wasn’t listening, “Fuck you - you son of a bitch!”
Mr Tyson was surprisingly calm, “I’m a changed man.”
Ty lashed out at him and swung his fist at him, connecting with the side of his face. He felt the pain rushing up his leg but ignored it and got ready to throw another punch. Sit got in between them as the security guards were pulling Mr Tyson away.
“How could you hit your father like that?” a seated Knicks fan yelled from above.
Another, who had gotten up and peered over the railing, shouted, “You no good piece of shit!”
Ty shouted back, “Watch your mouth there! I’m going to come up for you next!”
A lady had also come over to the railing, “Don’t pretend to be all mean. You’re soft boy!”
“You think you’re Ron Artest or something?” someone else added.
Ty gave them the middle finger and in a matter of seconds a small group of people were standing above the tunnel entrance and were booing at Ty. The game was in its final stages but these guys were more interested in Ty. The small group of fans began cursing and shouting abuse at Ty. Ty wanted to get up there but was being held back by security.
“Wait till I come for you!”
They continued heckling him.
Ty was struggling to get past security, “Wait till I come for all of you bitches!”
Sit was screaming at Ty, “Calm down! Calm down!”
Sit got off the phone with the commissioner.
“You’re lucky I just saved your ass from a suspension.”
Ty kept his gaze lowered.
“Now that I’ve done a favor for you, it’s about time you tell me about your situation.”
Ty was stubborn, “You don’t have no right to ask me that.”
“Yes I do.”
“Well, I refuse to answer your question.”
Sit tried to reason, “Ty, your father is banned from Stealth games in Seattle but the League won’t do anything about him in other cities unless you tell me about what’s happening with all of that. I know it may be personal but I can promise you confidentiality.”
“Just give me a break ok?” Ty pleaded.
There was an awkward silence.
“Please Ty,” Sit asked once more.
Ty sighed and said, “Even if I told you, it would not be enough to get him banned from every city. Forget it.”
Ty then thanked Sit for his time and apologized for his rash actions with the Knicks fans. Sit watched Ty limp, slightly, out of his office. He picked up his phone and called someone.
“So, he wouldn’t talk,” Sit stated.
Ty’s shrink replied, “Just give him time. His head is really messed up.”
* * *
Kevin Durant stole the ball and dribbled hard towards the other end. He did not have time and had too much momentum to gather the ball and go for the dunk so he opted for a layup. As he added another 2 points to his tally, he had helped cut Toronto’s lead to just three points at 97-94. German point guard and rookie Chris Hova surprised the Stealth by getting into the lane and making a tough shot in traffic. The Seattle crowd was back on its feet as David Lee responded with a a massive dunk with 53.3 seconds left. The Stealth then forced another turnover off Jose Calderon and Durant proceeded to score on a reverse layup to make the score 98-99 with 45.5 remaining.
“Take that little dude!” Durant boasted to Hova whilst running back down the court.
Hova caught the ball on the baseline and launched a triple and got the lucky bounce. The shot put his team back up by four points with just half a minute left. Hova smiled and waved to Durant as the two teams retreated into huddles on the sidelines as Seattle called a time out.
“We haven’t lost yet! We haven’t lost!” an injured Jason Kidd rallied his troops, “Let’s get out there and get the ball to Kevin!”
As the players ran back onto the court, Kidd pulled Durant aside, “Prove that it’s your team alright?”
Durant nodded and confidently wandered back onto the floor. Durant was fouled and sank both free shots. Lee then made one of the biggest plays of his season with a jumper to tie the game with 12 seconds remaining. Seattle’s home crowd went wild as the big man waved his arms in the air. Durant and Bogut mobbed Lee as Toronto called a timeout.
George Karl instructed his players, “Let’s get a stop! Let’s get a stop on the next play!”
Durant was instrumental as he filled in for Kidd at point guard and hassled the Raptors’ Calderon.
“You can’t get past me!” taunted Durant.
Calderon threw up a terrible shot and Lee collected the rebound. He quickly called for a timeout and Karl drew up the last play.
"Get the rock to Raja!” Karl was losing his voice, “Raja, knock it down!”
Bell was pleased to have the last play drawn up for him and Durant nodded his approval. Bell got the ball on the perimeter and rose up to shoot. He kept his shooting arm in the air after the follow through as the ball swished. Bell looked composed on the floor as Durant howled. The crowd loved his antics as they were as loud as they ever had been all season. The game wasn’t over though as Toronto took one more timeout. They went to Jason Kapono with the final shot but he was swatted by Durant.
“Can’t touch that shit!” Durant stared down Kapono before running towards everyone who had surrounded the hero Bell, “Raja, I love you man! That shot was dope!”
“I sure hope they celebrate like this when we play in the postseason,” smiled Bell as he was interviewed at half court by Cheryl Miller, “We’re looking to go far!”
Miller turned her attention to Durant who stopped waving to the crowd to answer her questions, “Kevin, great game tonight. 45 points and 9 assists, you sure look ready for the playoffs.”
Durant smiled into the camera, “I sure am. And with great guys like Raja, Andrew, David, and Jason, I think we can go really far.”
“What do you think of your first round opponents?” Miller asked then added, “You’re playing the Clippers.”
“They will be a test for us but I think we have what it takes to knock them out!”
“Your fans were amazing tonight, do you have anything to say about that?”
“It’s amazing to play at home and tonight we put on a great show. Kudos to Raja for hitting the last shot. That was great. I love playing with great guys like him! I hope the fans are ready for playoff basketball.”
Miller wrapped up the interview, “Thanks Kevin! Good luck against LA!”
Durant nodded to her then looked right into the camera, “This is my team baby!”
He then clenched his right fist and hit it twice onto the left side of his chest, “Seattle Stealth, my team baby!”
Last edited by
Fresh8 on Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:47 am, edited 2 times in total.