by Fresh8 on Sun Apr 23, 2006 6:29 pm
Chapter 13
Sit was dressed in his business suit and trying to get a bit of ‘shut-eye’ behind his sunglasses.
“Water sir?” an air hostess asked him.
Sit opened his eyes slowly, reacting to the call of her voice. He looked around in a daze before figuring out where the voice came from. He sat up and nodded to her, smiling.
“So how much longer until we get off this plane?”
The hostess tipped some water into a cup for him, “Another hour I guess.”
Sit kept smiling, “So you live in Atlanta or Phoenix?”
“No,” she replied handing him his water, “I’m from Illinois. The rostering got screwed up for this trip so I need to make the extra round and go cross country.”
“Thanks,” Sit said as he raised his cup to show her what he was referring to and then added, “Sucks you’ve got to go everywhere. I guess its fun you get to visit new places right?”
She looked down the aisle of the near empty plane and decided to keep talking, “It’s alright until you’ve been everywhere more than three times.”
“You serious?” he tried to sound surprised and interested at the same time.
“I’ve been to plenty of places…”
Sit cut her off, “I’m just surprised you don’t have a different job.”
She looked a bit confused, “What do you mean? I love my job!”
“Oh c’mon,” Sit grinned, “You’re pretty enough to be a model or a movie star. Has anyone told you that you got a killer smile?”
She blushed, “Thanks, you’re really sweet but not many people have ever told me that.”
“That’s a shame then,” Sit shrugged, “I guess all the travelling really takes time out of your love life then?”
She laughed, “You could say that. You know, I haven’t really seen a guy in a while…”
She blushed again before an older woman walked up from behind and tapped her on the back, “No flirting with passengers especially with men like him.”
She quickly pushed the drinks trolley away before the older lady who’d told her off glared at Sit. She strolled off and Sit tried to relax in his chair but something was bugging him. Shit, I forgot to ask for her number!
“I hope your flight was good,” Mr Colangelo said to Sit.
They sat in his office with a Charles Barkley jersey framed and hanging on his wall. Next to it was a team photo of the team from the season before when Steve Nash had helped to propel the team into the NBA’s upper echelon.
“Food was usual but there was a bit of talent on that plane,” Sit replied.
Colangelo didn’t understand what Sit meant by talent but he moved on.
“I’ve basically got you here to ask you about what you’re thinking of doing. If you want to manage a team, the Suns could use a man like yourself.”
Sit looked a bit shocked, “You’re doing a good job right?”
“I’m resigning soon. I’m moving to the Toronto Raptors.”
Sit was stumped, “Wow.”
“So I’m offering you my job. The Suns are a good team you know.”
“I know.”
“They could use your leadership.”
“Thank you.”
“What do you say?”
Sit paused, “I’ll need time to think about it.”
Colangelo nodded, “I understand but you need to get back to me within two weeks.”
“Will do,” Sit answered and shook the man’s hand before leaving through the door.
He bumped into a tall African-American man whom he thought he recognised. He stood to think and then laughed.
He pointed at the man and laughed, “You’re Ron Artest, True Warrior!”
Artest looked down at him strangely before going in to meet Colangelo.
It was only a week later that Sit wound up in the Big Apple. He was still considering the job with the Suns and had received an offer from the Timberwolves. He was in town to meet Larry Brown and to try and get the inside scoop on what was happening with the Knicks. Rumour had it that Isaiah Thomas would be fired soon.
“Mr Larry Brown?” Sit asked a man uncertainly.
The man nodded and Sit introduced himself.
“Nice to meet you,” Brown shook his hand, “Can I ask how you got my phone number?”
“Mike Woodson.”
“Should have known,” Brown smiled, “I hope Woody’s doing ok in Atlanta?”
“I would imagine better than how you’re feeling here,” joked Sit before continuing on a more serious note, “So Mr Brown, can you tell me if there’s going to be an opening any time soon for Isaiah Thomas’ job?”
“It probably will become free soon,” conceded Brown, “He’s done a terrible job for a while.”
“Well sir,” Sit said, “If I got the job I will trade Stephon away for you.”
“Thank God, that clown is really getting annoying.”
Sit shook Brown’s hand again, “Thank you for seeing me. I hope we work together in the future.”
“My pleasure, I will inform the team owner of your interest.”
Sit spun around to walk out of the café thinking to himself, The Knicks would be pretty fun to work with.
Antonio Davis grabbed the rebound over Luol Deng and passed it to Stephon Marbury. Starbury dribbled up-court slowly, raising his hand up to signal to the others which play they would be using. Eddy Curry quickly set a screen on Kirk Hinrich and Quentin Richardson flashed from the left side to the right. Stephon took two hard dribbles past Curry. The big man rolled to the hoop while Quentin was open for a three. Stephon had drawn the double team and should have looked to pass. Hinrich joined in the defensive effort on Marbury and the point guard foolishly tried to dribble out of trouble.
“Pass the freaking ball!” Larry Brown fumed from the bench.
Marbury did the opposite and threw the ball up in desperation. The ball missed the hoop and the shot clock ran out of time. Boos rained down from the crowd.
“24 second violation,” NBA ref Violet Palmer called out.
Marbury approached her, “Ref that was a foul! You know you saw that!”
She ignored him and held onto the ball, “Bulls’ ball!”
The buzzer then sounded and the other ref called for the subs to come onto the court.
Nate Robinson jumped off of the sideline and shouted to Stephon, “You’re off!”
Starbury looked as if he couldn’t believe he was being taken off for a rookie and retreated to the bench as the shower of boos kept on coming.
He took his seat on the bench and said to Brown as he passed him, “I tried to pass Coach.”
“Bullshit,” Brown muttered under his breath while he was thinking, God save me. I hate this team.
Will Sit sat in the crowd, enjoying the match and He was on his feet again as Eddy Curry slammed home the ball against his former team mate Tyson Chandler. Suddenly he was interrupted by an ESPN reporter and her cameraman.
“Hi Mr Sit,” she greeted him warmly, “Mind if we do a quick interview?”
Sit was a tad surprised, “You people know me?”
She ignored him and said, “We’re on air in three.”
The cameraman counted down with his fingers and the lady was on cue.
“I’m joined here by former Atlanta General Manager and bad boy Will Sit,” she stated, “So Mr Sit, what brings you to New York?”
Sit shook his head, “Firstly, I’m not a bad boy. Why did you even think of me like that?”
She ignored the answer and continued, “Why are you in New York?”
He didn’t like her so he decided he would make it hard for her to get any good news out of him, “I’m here for a holiday and taking in the atmosphere right now. It’s great here and I guess if you really wanted to know, my friend was right about this place.”
She looked hopeful, “What is so good about New York, are you going to take Isaiah’s job?”
He forced her off-topic, “The ratio of men to women is one to three. So all of you sports lovers out there, if you want a girl, come to the Big Apple!”
Sit smiled and gave the camera the thumbs up, the reporter knew her Boss was going to shoot her for wasting time.
She nodded, “So anything else you would like to tell our viewers? Like any inside scoop on the New York Knicks? Maybe the GM spot in particular?”
Sit shrugged and nodded, she looked excited thinking she had got him, “I just wanted to say that I will be going to take a leak now! Bye!”
As Sit left, she smiled uneasily, “Alright, let’s get back to the game then.”
The cameraman switched his camera off as the reporter said to him, “I can’t believe he was playing with us.”
The crowd went nuts as Ben Gordon heaved the ball from halfway and buried it. Sit stood, clapping and wondering why the MSG crowd could find it easy to cheer on the opposition. The players began to leave the court and the crowd started to file out of their aisles.
“Give It up for your New York Knicks!” the PA guy shouted.
Sit clapped as everyone else booed the home team. He was moving up the stairs when a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind him. He spun around quickly and saw that it was a lanky man with brown hair. The man’s accent surprised Sit.
“Andrew Begley, Chicago Bulls,” the man shook Sit’s hand.
“You’re Aussie right?” Sit exclaimed.
He nodded, “William Sit, the Bulls would like to offer you a job.”
“As GM? John Paxon has done pretty damn well with the team.”
Begley shook his head, “No, as our Public Relations Manager.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“We’d like to talk to you properly so if you have the time we could hold a small meeting with the other team executives now?”
“Sure,” Sit agreed.
The two walked down towards the rest of the Bulls’ staff as the PA guy was still talking into his microphone.
“Remember to vote for your favourite Knicks for the NBA All-Star Game! Log onto NBA.com tonight!”
The NBA’s All-star break was fast approaching and Sit was required to make a decision on whether he would accept any of the positions that were offered to him. The Bobcats made a late bid to acquire his services when Sit thought he was set on choosing the Phoenix Suns. The Bobcats’ Ernie Bickerstaff was tired of doing double duty as Coach and GM so he was offering Sit half of his workload. Sit was intrigued with the offers so far with Phoenix, Minnesota, New York offering GM spots, Chicago offering him a lucrative contract to work in Public Relations and the Bobcat’s offering a possible coaching job. Sit couldn’t choose between all the different jobs. All of the choices were so tempting and it was hard to decide between all of them.
* * *
Sit arrived in Houston for All-star weekend. On his flight into town, he had met Vince Young; a football product from Texas who was an exciting first round prospect for the NFL. Sit recognised Young from his All-star promos and the footballer had recognised Sit from the newspapers. Sit was invited to dinner at Yao Ming’s restaurant but he declined citing that he had better things to do. Once he got to his hotel room, he picked up the phone.
“Hi Mr Colangelo, I’ve made my decision.”
Colangelo’s voice was heard from the other end of the line, “Mr Sit is it? What have you decided on?”
“Look, the job offer is great. I like it but the Suns have already got a good thing doing.”
“And?”
Sit continued, “Personally, I’m the type of guy who craves a challenge. Phoenix won’t give that to me because there’s not much left to do with the roster. And I also want to work with a player and a team which I think is interesting. I was never a fan of the Suns or their history and I think that I would get bored working with an organisation if I haven’t followed it in the past. Steve Nash isn’t my type of franchise player either.”
“You can always trade the players you don’t want.”
“No, it would be a crime to disassemble a good team.”
Colangelo sounded disappointed, “So you’re going to turn my offer down?”
“I’m sorry about this sit. Good luck in Toronto in the future. Thanks for the offer.”
Colangelo responded, “Thank you for considering the Suns but is there any way we could make you reconsider?”
Sit smiled and said, “I’m sorry again sir. As I’ve said you gave me a great offer but I’ve already chosen to go elsewhere.”
Colangelo hung up and sat in his office and he thought, Wait a second- is that why Mitch Kupchak might be moving here?