Three Point Guarantee

“What are you guys doing this summer?” asked my fourth grade teacher. Everybody shot their arms up out of excitement for the summer. I could not resist. I did too. Luckily, I was the first called on.

“I am going to a basketball camp in Florida. The top one hundred sixty players in the nation from every class were invited. It is at a very fancy facility that has all the new technology!” I shouted in excitement.

“Wow John, that’s very neat,” said Mr. Orton nicely.

“Yeah,” I replied, “This is my third year straight being invited!”

“Well John, let’s see what your partner in crime, Randy, is doing this summer,” Mr. Orton added. I met Randy when I was two years old when he moved in across the street. We have been best friends ever since.

“I have a summer home that I go up to every year with my family, and I take some of my friends. We ski, tube, swim, play football on the beach, and so much more while we are there. It’s really fun, and I am really grateful to have it,” Randy replied.

Randy has always been really humble and modest. His parents have a business that has grown into a big deal, and now he is rich. Randy has always been there for me and is a really great friend.

Since today was the last day of school, it ended at noon. After school, I was having five friends over. Randy, a football player named Joe, a basketball player named Benjamin, and two friends who do not play sports competitively, but still like to play them for fun, Zach and Jeff. At my house, we ordered in Jimmy John’s for lunch, and played NBA 2K while we were waiting for the food to arrive.

After lunch, we decided to go outside to a nearby park to play basketball. It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, there was a moderate breeze with no clouds in the sky. It seemed like there wasn’t a cloud anywhere from here to Australia. It was about 70 degrees outside.

The fairest way to pick teams for the game was to have me and Randy be captains, and he gets the first pick. He selected Benjamin, then I picked Zach. He responded by picking Joe, so I had to pick Jeff. On the court, I was matched up with Randy. For some reason, my shot would not fall.

“I can’t make a shot!” I exclaimed.

My teammates picked me up by saying, “You’ll make the next one John.”

Boy, were they right. I proceeded to just make it rain 3 pointers and they started calling me “The Three Point Guarantee.” Somehow, we lost track of time and the red hot sun was starting to set. We went back to Randy’s house and had pizza.

I remember the first time the 6 of us hung out together. It was at Randy’s house and we had the same pizza for dinner. It was two years ago, and we were in an argument about how the Lakers were better than the Pistons. Benjamin, Joe, and Jeff thought the Pistons were better. Randy, Zach, and I thought the Lakers were better.

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to them for a week. That’s how long my basketball camp would be, and I promised them all I would meet up with them as soon as I returned.

“Have a great time at basketball camp!” they said simultaneously.

“Always be confident and play your game. Don’t let the skill of the other players get to you,” Randy added. He understood what this camp meant to me. How there would be scouts recruiting me to play for their AAU basketball team. The competition my local team faced was not nearly good enough for me to be scouted, so this was my only chance to get my name out.

“Thanks guys! I can’t wait until I get back and we can spend the rest of the summer together!” That was that. Now, I had to move on to the next activity, which was packing for camp.

It was 9:45 p.m. and I had to wake up at 6:15 for my flight to Florida tomorrow morning. I was exhausted and could not manage to pack anymore. “I’m bored to death.” I exclaimed to my mom hoping that she would take over and pack for me.

I guess I won this time. My mom replied, “You can go to bed sweetie. I will finish it off for you.” My mom said it in such a nice voice that it made me feel really guilty. But, I really was tired and it was best to get some rest. I remember that last year that we started playing games the day we got there.

Many thoughts were going through my head before I went to sleep that night. I was wondering how much better the players got from last year to this year. I wondered if any of my friends that I met last year were invited back. I wondered how good of a player the coaches would think I was. I wondered if any of the coaches would remember me from the previous years. I wondered if this was going to be the week that was going to make my name a common name.

“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” went the luxury I had in my human alarm clock. That was what my family called our mom every morning when she woke us up. This meant it was my time to go out and make my mark.

When I arrived at the facility, it looked even better than before. It was bigger and better than ever. Apparently, now there were sixteen courts. When I walked inside of the half where the rooms were, I saw Jordy in the lobby. Jordy was a friend I met two years ago, and he has been my go to guy at the camp.

I approached him and asked, “How was your year?”

“Sup, John. My game has gotten a lot better this year. I played with a team and we were able to become ranked sixteenth in the country,” Jordy replied.

“I wish I could say the same about my team. I feel like my game has gotten a lot better from private training and shooting around in the yard though,” I added.

“Hopefully we are on the same team,” said Jordy.

“That would be awesome,” I responded.

Games started later that night. I was on a team with Jordy, and some other guys that were there every year that I just didn’t remember. Once we got in the gym and started shooting, I realized how much better I was than most kids in the gym. They made most of their shots, but I just couldn’t miss. When I say I couldn’t miss, it was like I could shoot a backwards fadeaway and still watch the ball swish. When games started, my team did not work together very well. We only won two of our first six games after two days. Day three was the last day for seeding, then the bracket would start. If we wanted to make the better bracket, we had to win at least four of today’s six games.

As the games went on, we didn’t seem like a different team except for the fact that I just would not miss. I scored at least thirty five in every game, which was almost enough for us to win every game! On day three, we went five and one, meaning now our record was seven and five going into the brackets.

We were the twelve seed out of thirty two teams, so we played the twenty five seed. We could easily beat this team, but, somehow at halftime we were getting dominated. In the second half though, everything seemed to click. It was like being on a team where no matter who shoots, it the ball goes in. We caused turnovers on defense, and drained threes on offense. Before we knew it, the game was tied with 5 minutes left.

For the next three minutes, our teams went back-and-forth scoring.  Then, our defense stepped up. In a dramatic fashion, we forced two stops and scored to be up by five points with thirty seconds to go. From there, the other team could not put the ball through the net again.

Later in day four,  we rolled past another team for an easy victory. In all these games, I played unbelievable and I knew that I was going to be asked to play on many teams. The best part about my game was my three point shot.

The next day, we only had one game scheduled. This was the quarterfinals and I was not going to let our team lose from here. During this game, our team was working together really well and everybody contributed to a large margin victory. This time I didn't even play that well. With 10 minutes left though, we gave up our lead and were down two points with three minutes left. Then when we went back down the court, I put a three point shot through the net.  We never lost the lead for the rest of that game.

Now that it was the semi-finals, everybody who was eliminated had to watch the games. To nobody's surprise, I had another great performance leading to a commanding victory. I lost track of how many points I scored in this one, but it was enough to get the job done.

Day 7 was the last and most important day. It was championship day. The game would be played at ten in the morning, then the camp would be over.

I woke up feeling really nervous, and asked Jordy if he wanted to come shoot around with me around eight in the morning. Of course, he was more than happy to come shoot with me as our friendship had become unbelievable during the camp.

“How did you become such a good shooter?” he asked me when we started to put shots up.

“Oh come on Jordy, I’m not that good of a shooter,” I replied trying not to be cocky.

“No seriously John, you are on another level than the rest of us.”

“I don’t know Jordy. Let’s just try to stay focused on this game.”

It was time for tip-off. The player I was matched up with was named Scott. He was a foot taller than me, and was arguably the best player in the country. I was not going to let that get in my head though. As the game went on though, I could not do anything on him. He was a brick wall on defense. By half, I had only three points on a play where a got a screen allowing me to be open.

My teammates carried me through the game though, keeping it close the whole time. With ten minutes left, we were down eight points, and I still only had three points. Jordy was playing really well though, and had about twenty points. He made a three on our next drive making it a five point game. With a minute left, it was tied. Now I had eight points myself adding another three and two free throws. It was the other team's ball, and they went down and missed an easy layup. I got the ball and sprinted to the three point line and shot a three. BANG! The ball bounced off the rim and out into the other team's hands. They called a timeout and drew up a play. Scott completely didn’t listen and shot a contested jumper in my face. It was about five steps inside the three point line. It didn’t come anywhere near the rim, but the ref called a foul on me. I didn’t touch him!

“HOW WAS THAT A FOUL!” I screamed. My teammates held me back to assure I didn’t get thrown out of the game. I was super rattled and needed revenge. Scott made both free throws. We called a timeout, and when I walked back to my bench I got the greatest surprise of my life. Randy, Joe, Benjamin, Zach, and Jeff were sitting on the bench.

“Hey three point guarantee.” they said simultaneously. “Ready to do your thing?” they asked.

“I was born ready.”

The ball was inbounded to me with seventeen seconds left. I dribbled down and passed it to Jordy. Jordy drove and drew Scott away from me, then passed it back. I let it fly just before the buzzer sounded.. The rest was history. The shot was nothing but net, then the crowd started chanting, “THREE POINT GUARANTEE!” My friends jumped on me in excitement.

A coach walked up to me and asked if I would play on his AAU team. He said this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I said, “We are just going to have to see for now.”

After celebrating was over, my friends were on the same flight back as me. We flew Southwest, so we picked our seats on the plane. Jordy asked me to sit with him, but my friends wanted me to sit with them. I wasn’t sure what to do. I decided I would sit on the plane with Jordy, then go out to dinner with my friends.  

I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my parents all the stories about the camp. But for now, I felt like celebrating and enjoying the moment.   

Now that I was home, I was able to be with my friends again. Next week, my family was going up to Randy’s summer home! My parents told me they got email’s from many coaches asking if I could play on their AAU basketball team. I said, “Only if Randy can come too.”