Here’s a short story for ya. I don’t know. Typically, I write in the nonfiction sense, but today is just not that day. I want to try something new so don’t blame me if it doesn’t turn out well. My legs are also sore as hell from running today which was the first time in, oh, I don’t know, forever. Getting up from the couch is probably not going to happen after this, but here we go. This is a short story I call, “Switched”.
One day there was a basketball god named, “Kyle.” I’m not talking like great at basketball like phi slamma jamma, make it rain from three all night long. I’m talking about an actual capital G O D, god. Now he wasn’t the only basketball god. There plenty of other basketball gods, and they all had their own basketball specialty. One was all about the three-point game, the other about making crisp, clean bounce passes, pointing those thumbs out, and there was definitely the one god who specialized in hydration. Water or Gatorade? Depended on the situation, but by god, this god was making sure you were not cramping.
Not everyone got to visit the gods for advice. This isn’t a Nike camp, let alone a camp of any purpose. This was a camp for legends of the game. White Chocolate, he definitely was invited. Pistol Pete for sure was up there. It wasn’t just the LeBron types. One day, a non-legend was invited into the basketball god kingdom. It was a total accident. It was one of those someone’s mail went to the wrong address situations. So a man named, Darius, got the envelope.
Now Darius knew how to play basketball. He started his junior and senior season of high school and could have played D-II, but he knew he wasn’t going pro. He wanted that accounting degree which he got and started to work for Ernst & Young. He still hooped on the side, but he never played seriously until this letter came in the mail. Darius had no idea what it was, but he got invited so why not take the chance.
He went online to fill out the RSVP like every good wedding goer does and bam! He beamed himself right up to the heavens. He got there and Bill Russell was teaching Anthony Davis how to outlet pass, and most importantly, Jamaal Tinsley was teaching Dame Lillard how to perform the perfect crossover. Darius knew he snuck into the right place.
“You got next!” yelled Kevin, the Durantula, Durant.
“Oh shit,” thought Darius.
But it didn’t matter. Darius got invited into the game and started balling. Was he overmatched? Absolutely. Did he care? No. He was playing with KD, Oscar Robertson, George Mikan, Maya Moore, and lots of other famous basketball players. Now, these are all in their prime basketball players. This is basketball nirvana. The best players can go here anytime, and when a basketball player dies, they go to this nirvana. Does that make sense? No? Doesn’t matter.
But there was this one player who stuck out to Darius. Never saw him before, didn’t know who he was, but knew he was something. This guy’s name or should I say god’s name is Kyle. Kyle was good at basketball, but not better than the former NBA players except for one skill. That skill was switching. This god knew how to switch on defense. If someone yelled switch with him, he wasn’t half assing his way onto the new offensive player. Kyle was straight up inside the man’s shorts at that moment. His switching skills were unbelievable.
Darius was scared. He never saw a basketball player/god this great at switching. As the game went on, Darius would try get a pick and roll set for him, and every time, Kyle switched onto Darius. Kyle ate his lunch and also tomorrow’s lunch. It didn’t matter. Darius had nothing. In fact, no one else had nothing. It was incredible how good Kyle was at switching. I mean was it? He is a god.
Even MJ and LeBron couldn’t get a pick and roll off if Kyle was involved, but Darius had a plan. After three and half quarters of Kyle eating Darius’ lunches on switches, Darius was ready. Darius dribbled the ball up to the top of the key with the turn of possession. He looked to see who Kyle was guarding. It was the Servant himself, Kevin Durant so he called up KD for the pick.
KD came up for the pick and Kyle grinned ear to ear to switch on to Darius and eat his delicious roast beef sandwich. As Darius started to go towards the pick, he picked up his dribble and stopped. Kyle stopped. KD stopped. Darius unnamed defender stopped. No one knew what was happening. No one stopped mid pick and roll in basketball. Time literally felt frozen for how long he stopped. Darius winked at Kyle, threw the ball off of Darius god like face, caught it, and drove through the gap between Kyle and the unnamed defender. He brought down the house with a rim rocking dunk. No one had ever done that to Kyle before.
Darius’ team ended up losing by 15, but he proved the basketball god wrong. After the game, he immediately was beamed back home and slept. It was a good night. He woke up the next morning thinking maybe it was a dream that he went to basketball heaven. He looked at the wall and saw a new poster with him breaking through that switch and it said, “Switched.”