20
Crunch Time By Julixa Minier
“ Timeout ! Timeout ! TIMEOUT !” Coach yells . “ Zay , stop trying to be famous ! Get down the court and PASS THE DAMN BALL . There are a lot of important people in this room that can potentially help you further in y ’ all ’ s career . Ya don ’ t wanna look stupid on the news . Stop playing for yourself and start playing as a team ." “ I can ' t pass the ball if there ' s no one there ,” I say . “ What that got to do with me ? Talk to your teammates and figure it out . You not captain to look pretty , Zay . When ya go back in there , get it together . Lions on three .” “ One ... two ... three ... LIONS !” Man , this is light . I can do this without Coach being up all on me . Alright , second free throw shot : everyone getting quiet . Who ' s opening the gym doors now ? My heart stops . Everything goes blank and I can only hear my heart beating . No way : he ’ s here . After seven years of playing basketball , he finally came . As I look at him in shock , I see my coach in my peripheral view and he looks like he wanna knock me upside the head . He kinda looks like a Goomba from Mario . That makes me snap out of it .
I pause and take two deep breaths , dribble three times . Okay , Zay : Breathe , dribble , shoot . Got it ! Told ya this was light . I look at my father ' s face : he doesn ’ t have no reaction at all .
As if he wasn ’ t impressed . I brush it off and play the game .
Everything ' s clicking now that we ' ve found our rhythm , but we ' re down by one . I can ' t believe it ' s coming down to this : our ball , last play . I ' ve had intense games before , but this one feels different .
We huddle up . “ Guys , we playing dominoes : if everyone does their part at the right time , this play is gonna make the win . There ' s twenty seconds on the clock , so we gotta move ."
Tony inbounds , passing it to Sam ; Josiah cuts and Sam hits him with the pass ; Josiah shoots ... and misses . But Zion snatches the rebound . “ ZAY !”