Chapter 43: Back-to-Back
*Sound Effects*
**Language**
'Thoughts'
"Dialogue"
(Point of View)
| Setting |
[System]
| Location: Airport, Boston, Massachusetts |
| Date: Friday Nov 11, 2005 10:25pm |
(1st person - Javi)
Soon after the game, we headed out to the airport to head to the next game we had against the Washington Wizards, tomorrow at 7:00pm.
We soon arrived onto the flight, the staff got us pizza to eat on the flight there since we didn't have much time to eat after the game. I didn't mind and most of the guys didn't seem to mind either since they were tearing it up.
"Pineapple on pizza?" Bowen asked looking at me questioningly. I actually didn't understand the whole stick against pineapple, it wasn't bad especially when it had Canadian bacon like this pizza.
"Yep" I said unfazed.
"You know they only buy it to see who the psychopath is on the team" joked Brent.
"Fuck you" I said with a laugh as I took a bite, everyone else laughed as well.
'More for me' I thought while taking a sip of my soda.
Soon, the pizza was no more. After the pizza, the team died down, some going attempting to go to sleep. While others waited since we were only about an hr 45 away from Washington. I decided to stay up and wait since I didn't want to be wide awake when we landed.
Instead, I opted for listening to some music while looking out the window, thankfully it was night time so I didn't need to worry about it being too bright for the guys to go to sleep. I looked outside in a trance as I looked outside. It was the same feeling I got when I drove at night at home, however, it was a much better view.
Before I knew it, the plane was about to land, the runway clear with a runway person guiding the plane where to touch down.
As we landed and came to a stop, the inside of the plane came on, pops came in like a boot camp instructor.
"Rise and shine!" he shouted as he made his way outside of the plane first along with some of the other coaches.
I could hear moans and groans as some of the guys woke up, however, Manu was fast asleep, unfazed by the noise and lights.
"Yo Manu" I said as I nudged him to wake up.
He made some groans before he barely woke up. He seemed grumpy so after I woke him up, I made my way off the plane.
It was at moments like this that I again thanked the Mamba Mentality skill. It was a skill that had so many benefits that I initially didn't even think of.
We made our way out of the plane with most of us being extremely tired, even Timmy had bags under his eyes for staying up during the plane flight. We made our way onto another bus that was waiting for us as we went to the four seasons hotel. Despite experiencing these fancy hotels during the preseason, it was still hard for me to get accustomed to.
Brent mentioned to me though that it will eventually feel normal after my Rookie year, however, I wasn't so sure about that.
As everyone got settled into their rooms, the night quieted down. On the road, some players would room with others, however, this was preference based. As most of my teammates were married and had wives, they would often have a room for themselves whenever their wives traveled with them.
However, this wasn't all the time as most wives didn't enjoy the grueling aspect of traveling every other day or sometimes everyday for certain games. Additionally, someone had to be home to take care of the house and the kids if they had some. As a result, most of the time they would only join during home games or whenever we went to certain places such as New York or Las Angeles.
Most rookies had a mentor in the veterans on the team, sometimes it was unspoken and just happened. Other times it was predetermined by the Coach depending on the situation.
I was sharing a room with Brent as Pop's wanted someone to watch after me since it was my rookie year and Brent and I got along well. I was curious why he chose Brent over Manu, Bruce, or even Tony. I guessed it was most likely since Manu was not the most mature person. Additionally, Bruce was mature, however, he wasn't the most social, enjoying his 'me time'. Lastly, the only reason I could think of why Pop's didn't choose Tony was because he was most likely not as Knowledgeable as Brent was, being an entire 11 years younger than Brent.
I didn't mind it, I had already learned a lot so far from Brent, though he did always make sure to mention that I needed to get myself some suits. I was able to brush him off a few times, however, I anticipated that he was gonna drag me along with him one of these days.
I eventually closed my eyes after staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, making sure to pray and thank god for the opportunities he has given me and praying for more to come.
I eventually nodded off to sleep, getting ready for my first back-to-back of my career.
I woke up early again, around 5am. I felt fully energized, the remnants of fatigue that I felt from playing a game just yesterday was nowhere to be seen. As I looked outside, I couldn't help but think.
'I hate away games'. It was always weird when I was on the road as I didn't have the ability to drive to the facility and put up shots, now that I was the away team, I needed to make sure to see the scheduled times that our team had to practice today.
Additionally, since I woke up so damn early, I felt bored, it was hard to go back to sleep when I felt this energized. When I didn't have the 'Mamba Mentality' passive, I was able to go right back to sleep even after 7 or 8 hours of sleep. However, that was not the case now.
I decided to wake up and look for nearby gyms. I eventually found a golds gym nearby me, thankfully the Franchise paid for everyone's gym memberships though some people didn't use golds gym and just used the practice facilities. However, the league knew that only some time slots were allotted which made it difficult to practice.
I was able to get a taxi as they had a 24-hour service. I made my way to the gym and started to workout, I didn't play any ball since I didn't bring one with me. Though next time, I will make sure to not make that mistake.
'Wait' I thought as a lightbulb went off in my head.
I looked at the signed Magic Johnson ball that I had sitting in my inventory.
'No, I shouldn't' I thought attempting to hold myself from ruining such a historic item.
'I mean, they played with it too' I thought as I reasoned with myself.
I eventually relented as I made my way over to the court before reaching into my bag while mentally pulling out the signed ball.
Though I wasn't sure if anyone was watching the security cameras, I definitely did not want the ball to appear out of thin air.
I began to dribble the ball and it felt perfect.
'I can always get more in the future' I reasoned with myself as I began to do my daily's which involved dribbling today, using the signed ball.
Time flew by as I looked at the clock to see it was already 8am.
'Oh shit' I thought as I hurried out, nobody had entered the court so I thought it was still fairly early. Usually when someone would enter the court, it was a good indicator of the time, however, now I know this was a flawed method.
I made my way back to the hotel after fetching another Taxi. I made my way into the hotel and made my way up the elevator before finally entering the room, I looked at noticed that Brent's room was still closed so most likely he was still asleep. I decided to take a quick hour or so nap before we had shootaround at 11am.
Usually we had it earlier, but since we were on the road and are doing a back-to-back they decided to give us a little time to recover.
I woke up around 10:15 and made my way down to the bus where we were set to leave to the facility at 10:20. Brent's door was open so I assumed he had already made his way down.
'Thanks Kobe' I thought as I made my way down to the lobby, feeling very rejuvenated despite only sleeping an hour. The main boon was the 10x healing when I slept, so all the fatigue was gone that I had previously felt. It was this very ability that helped me the most, allowing me to continue to push myself at 100% every single day.
Thinking about the ability, I smiled as I couldn't wait to face against Kobe again soon, I wanted to see how much I had approved and if it made any difference.
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A/N: Pack Opening coming soon! Give some more suggestions on what abilities you'd like the main character to receive. Also, if you'd like to support the story, consider leaving a review, dropping a comment or some stones below!
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