13 Tryouts: Part 1

There was a giant towering over me, he had brown hair and a friendly face. As soon as he saw me he started smiling and said:" Welcome to the basketball team. I am a second year player Kiyoshi Teppei. Are you here to tryout for the basketball team, if you are please join the group over there." He stopped and pointed to a large group of people gathering at the side of the court.Then he continued to explain.

"Our basketball club is one of the biggest clubs in this school. We have a total of 3 teams. The third team consists of amateurs and will only play in practice matches and maybe get promoted to the second team in their second or third years. The second team team consist of people who have been playing basketball for a while and they may get promoted to the first team after their first year. Most first years will join the second team so you could aim for that. So do you understand everything?"He asked me after he finished his explanation.

"What about the first team. You did not mention anything about the first team."I asked.

"Well, in this school it is very, VERY, rare for someone to join the first team in their first year. The last time that happened was like 15 years ago and that person remains a club legend. If I remember correctly he went on to play in the NBA for a couple of years after graduating from college."

"I see, thanks a lot for the help." I said gratefully before making my way to the group of first years. Making it to the NBA was just a dream for many but I knew one thing. I am definitely going to make it to the NBA in the future and the first step is to make it to the first team.

I joined the group and looked around and I noticed a familiar face. Isn't that Kazunari Takao, the point guard who teamed up with Midorima in high school and there is Ryo Sakurai, the mushroom head sharpshooter that went to Tou. Nice, there is actually some really good talent in my batch.

I walked up to them and introduced myself:" Hey, you guys look like you know how to ball. I'm Nakamura Kaen, you can just call me Kaen, I'm looking to play small forward."

"You got an air of confidence around you huh, I'm Kazunari Takao, you can call me Takao and I'm going to be playing the point." Takao stuck out his hand and I shook it.

"I-im Ryo Sakurai, n-nice to meet you K-kaen. I'm Ryo Sakurai, you can just call me Ryo and I-i want to play shooting guard." Ryo stammered awkwardly. Woah, I knew he did not have much confidence but I did not expect it to be this bad in middle school.

"Everybody gather up in the middle, it's now time for the tryouts. We are going to be testing your shooting, handling and finishing and your moves in the paint. Then we will be playing practice games to determine your worth on the team. Good luck to all of you." The head coach said and started signaling to begin the tryouts.

System, I called out and looked at my stats.

[name: Nakamura Kaen

Age: 12

Height: 35/100 (projected height growth: 1.96 meters)

Shooting: 400/800 (level:4)

Handles: 350/800 (level:4)

Lay-ups: 600/800 (level :4)

Post scoring: 0/800 (level: 4)

Size: 0/800 (level: 4)

Athleticism: 600/800 (level:4 )

general points: 0 ]

I had come a long way over the past 6 years, now all my stats were at level 4 and even my projected height had increased by 5 cm. Although I knew that from here on out my growth would be much slower, it was still extremely satisfying to feel myself levelling up in basketball. It was like a drug which I never stopped wanting. Now it was time to crush this tryout.