by Fresh8 on Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:33 pm
Chapter 1
The Hawks players ran up and down the court, their jerseys looked like they were soaked in ink thanks to the immense amount of sweat that they had amassed through the training. The members of the team finally finished their suicide runs; punishment for another poor session. They were all stumbling along on the baseline. Each and every member of the team looked like they were dying of thirst in a desert.
Sit sat courtside, quietly observing how Coach Woodson treated and organised his players. Al Harrington, Joe Johnson and Josh Childress were the first to leave the court as rookies Salim Stoudamire and Marvin Williams later followed suit. 2005 Slam Dunk champion Josh Smith hung around on the sideline to be interviewed by journalists about an impending trade that would see him to New York. Sit left his courtside seat and started to move briskly towards the lobby entrance before stopping to look over his shoulder. He spotted Zaza Pachulia shooting free throws by himself. Itching to shoot the basketball for the first time in months, Sit turned back towards the hardwood.
“Want to play Horse?” Sit asked.
Zaza looked down at him and replied in an uncertain tone, “Yeah, sure.”
He took the ball from Zaza’s hand and took a shot from behind the arc. The ball swished through the net and Sit just said, “Wow, what a fluke!”
Zaza’s shot was an air ball and Sit joked, “Maybe I should replace you on the team?”
He then took his next shot from the right hand side of the court on the sideline. The ball sailed in the air in a parabolic path and went in off the backboard.
“Bank!” yelled Sit.
Zaza didn’t blink due to shock and he looked at Sit in disgust, “I’m losing to you?”
“Sure am,” taunted Sit.
Zaza’s following shot was another air ball and Sit squared up to take another attempt. The ball left Sit’s hand as he launched the rock in perfect technique. Sit raised his fist as he watched the ball drop into the iron but before he could turn around to smile at his opponent, the ball rolled out of the rim.
Sit couldn’t believe his bad luck and murmured, “This ring is rigged.”
Zaza smirked at Sit, “I’ve had enough of this bull.”
The big man proceeded to dunk the ball.
“Hey! That ain’t fair,” Sit protested, angry that his height was being taken advantage of.
Pachulia then stated, “Play by my rules kid.”
Sit received his first letter before his opponent finished him off with four more simple dunks. He didn’t even come close to touching the rim.
“Good game,” Sit said, smiling at Zaza before shaking his hand.
Zaza nodded and left the court for the dressing room.
Looking back towards the entrance to the lobby, Sit saw the Hawks’ legal adviser John O’Shea standing at the door. He waved at John and the other man waved back. He jogged up to greet John in the lobby.
“A bit hot to be playing in a suit,” John said.
John was a tall European man. His pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes earned him the nickname of Albino amongst his workmates in the Hawks’ organisation
Sit replied, “It’s good fun but I need to take a shower.”
He then noticed that John looked flabbergasted, “You been doing a bit of running yourself Albino?”
John then said, “I came quickly to get you. I need to warn you that there’s a whole bunch of media outside waiting to see you.”
“What are they here for?”
John hesitantly told him, “The Stephon Marbury was just vetoed by the board of directors only fifteen minutes ago. I’m sorry.”
Sit was confused and asked, “Why?”
“That’s what you will have to ask them. You have a meeting with the board in one hour.”
“Alright,” Sit replied with disappointment evident in his shaky voice, “And the media. What do I tell them?”
“You can always go out through the back door.”
Sit pondered for a while and made a quick decision, “I have nothing to hide. Let’s go.”
It took a quick shower and changed into shirt, shorts and thongs. John had called police to request an escort to Sit’s car that was parked outside the training complex. The barrister walked in circles inside as the two waited for the police to arrive. Sit sat there wondering, Why would the board override my decision?
“Can the board legally do this?” Sit questioned.
“They do if it’s on the right basis,” John answered, “They’re shareholders of the team and are quite high up. If they went to the owner of the team, I think the owner would trust them more too since you only just got the job.”
The wail of sirens echoed in the distance as a handful of squad cars pulled up outside. A dozen officers broke up the mob outside and John unlocked the entrance to the gym. Sit stood out into the hot sun and put on his sunglasses. The journalists and cameramen tried to make a push towards Sit. As they edged closer, the three policemen protecting him stood in their path. The flashing and clicking of cameras and the constant squabble of reporters trying to get a story annoyed him.
Amongst all of the questions, Sit just responded, “No comment” to all of them.
The authorities wrestled their way through the crowd, creating a path for Sit to follow. As Sit got to ride, he spun around to face the mass of media and shouted, “The news of the trade falling through has come as a shock to me too. But please respect my privacy!”
Sit hopped into his car and sped off.
Rob Wilson was a successful businessman back in his ‘hey day.’ The middle aged family man joined the Hawks as a financial adviser and was promoted to the board of directors due to his brilliant track record. If there was anyone that Atlanta could rely on to increase sales and popularity, this man was him. Rob was a religious man and loved his sport. More importantly though was the fact that the entire front office of the Hawks franchise had trust in him. The board consisted of five men and Rob was the president of it. He was the one who convinced the others to agree to veto the Stephon Marbury trade.
There was a knock at the door and a lady opened the door to announce Sit’s arrival. He burst through the doors once the lady had stepped out and smashed the door closed behind him. His appearance was nothing more than utterly unimpressive.
“How dare you stop my first move,” Sit boldly claimed, pointing his finger at Rob, “How could you? I’m doing this franchise a favour!”
Sit’s face looked like it was about to explode and his eyes were full of rage.
“Calm down good man,” Soothed the plump faced Wilson, “Let’s handle this properly.”
“Handle this properly? You guys just freaking broke off a very, important trade!”
A member on the left of Wilson replied, “The board doesn’t approve your actions.”
“I’m bloody saving this entire franchise. I’m the GM, I get the final say.”
The same man who had just spoken added, “We believe that you are too inexperienced to make such an important decision.”
Sit looked insulted as he shot back, “You’re discriminating me aren’t you?”
“We didn’t say…”
Sit interrupted, “I will let you know that Stephon will make the sales of tickets go up. He is a major piece in our puzzle and since a player of his calibre is available, we really need to take advantage of this situation!”
Wilson debated, “Josh Smith is the faced of our franchise. You can’t just trade him away after one season. The same goes for Josh Childress, he’s got potential too.”
“I can trade him if I want,” The stubborn Sit said, “Stephon, Joe Johnson and Al can be the faces of our franchise.”
A bulky African American man sitting on the right of Rob voiced his own opinion, “Will you two just hold on? We don’t need a franchise player- we need to re-establish ourselves as a respectable franchise first!”
Sit and Rob, almost simultaneously glared at the man with both of their faces seemingly saying, Are you crazy? The man just looked back and shrugged.
“Mr Sit, our fans need to be able to relater to us,” Rob spoke up confidently, “They remember Dominquie Wilkens when Atlanta was actually doing well. When Josh won the dunk contest and wore the number 21 jersey, it was great publicity. This will increase sales by itself.”
Sit saw his point but he still felt the urge to argue, “Yeah, what’s good if we have a one-dimensional star when we can have a winning team instead with three possible All Stars?”
The board laughed and one of the men shouted out, “You’re trying to tell us that Stephon Marbury can help win games?”
“He’s never…”
This time Rob butted in, “Never what? Never had a supporting cast? Never been with a team long enough to start winning? Has it occurred to you that Stephon’s team have always done better without him?”
One of the others added, “The board won’t agree with you on this topic Mr Sit. The decision is final!”
Sit couldn’t take it, he felt that it wasn’t fair that he was being ordered by someone in an inferior position to where he was.
“You won’t let me make choices,” Sit questioned, his fists clenched tightly and his body shaking, “Why?”
One of the other board members answered his query, “Because you are too young, too inexperienced.”
“Or is it because I don’t have the same qualifications as you and I got a better job or is it because I don’t have a trophy wife at home who doesn’t love me?”
The board members all whispered and cursed under their breath as Sit continued, “So how much did Mr Wilson bribe you with?”
Rob rose from his chair and struck his hand on the table. Sit picked up his glass of water and sipped it.
“How dare you speak of us like that?” Rob asked.
Sit shouted back, “I’m not here to fight. Now that I know what kind of scum I work with, I fully understand why Atlanta is so awful. I have come to realise that this board is not worth my time.”
“You little…”
Rob couldn’t finish as the water from Sit’s glass splashed into his face. Sit put the glass down hard and turned to walk to the door.
“You may have won this time,” He shouted at the board members who were holding back Rob Wilson from lunging at him, “But you haven’t seen the last of me.”
After that, Sit left the room and once again slammed the door behind him. Books from the bookshelf near the door fell to the ground in a giant heap.
As Sit stood in the tranquillity of the lift; a stark contrast to the noisy boardroom, Sit thought, I just gotta make it.
Last edited by
Fresh8 on Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:27 pm, edited 3 times in total.