Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Elite Team

Elite team

Once upon a time there was a kid named Max Baker, he loved the sport of basketball. Max is in eighth grade, he is about 5 foot and is 95 pounds. He noticed at school that there was a tryout sheet for the travel basketball team. Max had been working on his jump shot all summer, at the park courts.
“Max thought that he probably has a good shot at making the travel team.”
There were a lot of other really good players in his grade, who are faster and bigger, but Max has this spin move that he can beat them on every time. Max is also a three point specialist he can shot perimeter shots and corner shots. He made the game winning three last year to win the semi final game vs the bobcats. But this week was tryout week, so Max had to focus on his game.
It was the next week and it was time for the tryouts. When he first got there he was the only one there. He wondered if today was the day for the tryouts. But on his sheet it said 3:00 sharp on wednesday, so this had to be it he wondered. Anyways he grabbed a ball and started shooting.
“Today he thought”  
“Today is the day that show these guys what I’m made of.” He started off with some easy layups, then when he made them, he started backing up and shot perimeter shots. He noticed that he had been shooting really well lately, he wondered if it was just him getting better, or just luck. But he was going to go with it. Max looked at the clock it read 3:10, they have to be coming soon. Then, finally his coach walked in, “ Practice doesn’t start for a hour and a half.” You are a little early son.”
“ No sir, I thought it read 3:00 sharp,” said Max.
“ Nope,” said Coach.
“ Ok I’m going to just stay here, and practice for a bit if you don’t mind.” Max said.
“ Ok, that’s fine with me.” said Coach.
Finally after a thousand shots, Max thought, finally, It was time for practice. There was at least twenty boys, or so that showed up. There was big kids, and smaller kids around Max’s size. Max still thought that he had a good shot of making the team. Finally, after ten minutes of shooting around, it was go time.
Max got split up in a group with kids, that were more of his skill type. They started of with a quick game of knock out. Whoever was the top three people to win out of the four groups, got to pick their teams. Max was feeling really confident about this, he started off 3rd in line. Max ended up getting 4th in the game.
Max was put on a team with some okay players. Not as good as players as he thought he would get, but he was ok with it. Max’s team played first, his team was the Spurs. He had to play the Heat first. Max seen that there was some really good kids on that team and that he needed to play really good, to impress the coaches.
It was the opening tip off, the heat got the tip and went down and drained a three pointer, right away. Max got the ball from inbounds, he moved the ball up the court and saw Josh in the corner. He passed it to him.
Max said, “ Oh no, don’t shoot that,” but he did anyway and drained it.
“ No that’s how we play.” said Josh.
It was ten to 11, the Heat were winning. It was Spurs ball, Max caught the inbounds play and drove coast to coast up the courts. There was three minutes left in the 2nd half, Max had to do something, he passed to the right and went to the left. Then the guy went to the top of the key, and caught the ball. Then he beamed it back at Max in the corner, Max straightened his stance and let it fly.
All he could see was the ball going straight through the net, like a darting bullet. Max held up his three fingers and made a sign on his eyes. But he noticed the other team was catching up, so he had to run back on defense. The score was 13 to 11 and Max found his rhythm, Max was draining three’s left and right all around the perimeter. It was the 3rd quarter with only two minutes left, the score was 26 to 15.
Max had already about half of their points, dropping 13 points and four assists. It ended up being the end of the third quarter and the fourth came along. You could tell that the Heat were getting really tired, so it was time for Max to push through it and attack the paint. Max got the ball and drove up the court. He drove the lane hard and kicked it out to Josh in the corner.
He pulled up and shot it, the ball rolled around the hoop like a toilet bowl and finally went in. The score was 29 to 15, it was getting to be about the end of the fourth. When 20 seconds pulled up on the clock, Max got the ball he wanted to try this new move that he had never done before. It was the behind the back, crossover, spin move, right to the hole. He knew if he could perfect this move, the judges will automatically write his name down for the team.
I can do this he thought. Then Max got the ball from inbounds, he let the ball roll until about half court, then he picked it up. Max drove to the three point line, then did his move. He got the behind the back, crossover, then the spin move. After that his defender was clueless, and Max seen a wide open lane then attacked. Easy left hand layup for two.
The game finally came to a close, with the Spurs coming out with the win. The final score was 31 to 15 the Spurs. At the end of practice, they were going to call out the names of the 10 out of the twenty people who showed up, to be on the team.
The coach called of from his clipboard, “ Josh, Gabriel, Blake, Eli, Johnny, Doug, Mitchell.”
“ I wonder if I will get picked,” Max said.
“Wyatt, Kyle, and last but not least Max,” said Coach
“ Sorry boys better luck next year,” he said to the other player.
Max was so happy that he made the team. After that he ran all the way home from practice and yelled as loud as he could, (as he walked in the front door,) “I made the team,” said Max
So that was the story of Max Baker, making his elite tryout team.




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