Walking into the gym, I can not help but think of how blessed I am to be getting this opportunity. I am getting to train with an NBA coach. It is amazing that my Gramps knows the New Orleans Hornets head coach, Monte Williams. This feels so surreal, but I am not as nervous as I thought I would be. After all, I have been working on my game for years now, and this chance is one I can not afford to mess up. I suppose it is my adrenaline; it always did boost the way I play. The gym is wonderful. It is probably the best one I have ever been in. The wood floor shines brightly. The enormous arena makes me want to play in the NBA even more. I can imagine the grandstands full of cheering fans, and I can picture them all going crazy as I ran through the tunnel. The smell of the freshly varnished floor reminds me of the old gym in the French Quarter I grew up honing my skills in. I can hardly wait for this to begin. I think I will start taking some warm up jump shots. Grabbing a bright orange basketball off of the huge ball rack, I began my warm up routine. First bouncing the ball of the floor then caching and shooting it with my right hand twenty times then my left hand another twenty times. Next I took twenty shots from each short corner of the court. Last in my routine is game situation jump shots. I took my first shot from the corner of the floor. Nothing but net. My next five shots followed suit. I am really feeling it. It is one of those times ball players dream of. I am starting to get a bit of a swagger in my walk. I started doing some dribbling exercises when my Gramps and Coach Monte came walking in through the double doors under the west wing of the arena. “Good morning. ”, Coach said. “ Good morning Coach. It is nice to meet you. ” “ It is nice to finally meet you as well. Your Grandfather talks about you quite a lot. That is why I had him bring you in for a workout. I have to see how over embellished his stories of you were. ” “ Well hopefully I can show you that I can live up to the hype. “ “ Me too. Well lets find out shall we? How about you star out by running fifteen suicides, and then meet me in the weight room. To get there, go
