Chapter 7
The next morning, Daniel was up early, as always. He headed to the park to practice. But that morning, instead of shooting foul shot after foul shot, Daniel practiced his layups.
He stood at the top of the key, then dribbled up one side of the lane. He tried not to think about bouncing the ball off his foot, or throwing up a brick. He tried to just focus on making the shots.
As he reached the bottom of the key, he jumped, raised the ball, and gently released it. It hit the backboard, circled the rim, and fell out.
“Well,” Daniel said, grabbing the rebound, “better than last time, at least.”
For an hour, Daniel took layup after layup, sometimes from the left and sometimes from the right. By the end of his practice session, he had made a few shots.
Still, it wasn’t quite what he needed. He needed to make all the shots.
* * *
When Daniel got to school later that morning, he found PJ Harris and Isaac Roth hanging out by their lockers.
“Hi, PJ. Hey, Isaac,” he said.
The two starters looked at him for a moment.
“What’s up, Daniel?” Isaac said.
“You guys know I, um, might be starting in the next game, right?” Daniel asked.
Isaac and PJ looked at each other, then nodded.
“Listen, I know I’m not the best ball handler on the team,” Daniel went on.
Isaac laughed. “Not even close,” he said. PJ chuckled.
Daniel pretended he hadn’t heard that. “But my foul shot is good,” he said. “Jimmy Kim thinks I might have the best shot from the line on the team.”
Isaac seemed impressed. But he said, “So what’s your point?”
“I need your help, both of you,” Daniel said. “PJ, you can block anything, practically, since you’re the tallest guy on the team.”
“Tallest in the league,” PJ corrected him.
“Okay,” Daniel said, turning to Isaac. “And you’re the best defender on the team, right?”
“Most steals in the league since the 1980s,” Isaac said, smiling.
“Right,” Daniel said. “But PJ, you also get called for shooting fouls, and Isaac, you get called for reaching in.”
“You better have a point,” PJ said, frowning down at Daniel.
“I want to practice driving on you two,” Daniel said quickly, “so I can play well in the game, and get to the foul line to score.”
Isaac and PJ looked at Daniel for a long time. A bell rang, letting them know homeroom would be starting in two minutes.
“So?” Daniel asked nervously. “Will you help?”
“The game is in three days,” Isaac replied. “How are we going to have time to practice, just the three of us?”
“I’m at the park courts every day at six,” Daniel replied.
“Man, I can’t go practice at six,” PJ said. “I have dinner with my dad, and then do my homework.”
“No, six in the morning,” Daniel explained.
Isaac and PJ just about fell over. “In the morning?” Isaac said. “That’s insane!”
“It’s how I got my foul shot so good,” Daniel said. “Look, we better get to homeroom. Think about it. And then be at the court at six tomorrow morning.”
With that, Daniel jogged down the hall and got to class just in time.