The Gamer: Basketball Edition

Failure Brings New Opportunities

"-and with the last pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Indiana Pacers selects Hugo Besson!"

Those words fell on deaf ears as I was already devastated beyond belief. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has announced the last of the draft and it hadn't been my name. All the work I had put in was for not, and I was starting to feel hopeless. My only tangible support was my brother, who was asleep beside me on the couch. Feeling down, I went outside to the driveway and do the one thing I always do when I feel this way; hoop. I started doing multiple driving moves like stepbacks, hesitations, and behind-the-backs. I when to the rim and did a violent straight-arm tomahawk dunk, my personal favorite. After the dunk, I went to retrieve the ball since it rolled a bit. As I got the ball, I noticed this man had now appeared in my driveway. I quickly faced his direction and saw that he was walking with a cane and dressed up in a charcoal black suit and pants, a white shirt, black dress shoes, a black tie, and a fitted black fedora. Needless to say, he was wearing a lot of black. 

"Uh, can I help you yo? Wtf you doing in my driveway?" I was blunt with my comment to him, I had no idea why he was here. "No you can not help me, however, I can help you." He responded to my questions with a very professional-sounding voice. It was like we were trying to negotiate the terms of an important business proposition. "Really now? How exactly would you be able to help me huh? What are you like some agent or something?" "Hmm, you could put it that way yes." "Well, I already have an agent, he ain't the best obviously but I do have one so sorry dude." "You must be mistaken Mr. L/N, I'm not some sports agent, I'm more a life agent if you will. Life agent? What is this dude going on about?  "So you are a guidance counselor? Bro I don't need any guid-" "Mr. L/N, I don't have time for these intricacies, allow me to explain so we can save time." I was about to go off on this dude for interrupting me but decided not to, never know if he got a strap hidden somewhere.

"You Mr. L/N, despite your best efforts, was not chosen to go to the National Basketball Association. However, I was sent here to give you a proposition. I can give you right now at this moment the ability to become the exact type of player you desire to be, but in exchange, you won't be able to do in this universe." I don't know if it was me still feeling hopeless or not, but instead of shrugging this guy off and going back inside, I stood there and thought about it. I mean, if he really could make me into some goated basketball player, then why wouldn't I take this chance? Although, it was what I was giving up in an exchange that irked me. Not in this universe? How's that even possible? 

"I'm sure you're a bit confused, so let me explain further. I will send you to an alternate universe, one this is very similar to this one, but you will be granted The System. Now, usually, The System is used for reincarnates to get powers to become gods but this one will be modified to give you basketball talents and abilities." "Ok, what will happen to the "me" here then?" "The "you" here will continue on living like they normally would." "Okay, you know what, I accept your offer Mr...uh" "You may call me Langston." "Ight then, so yeah I accept it, Langston."

Langston nodded his head and pointed his cane up toward me, before I knew what had happened everything went dark. 

I proceeded to open my eyes, but it was still dark. That is until a bright screen appeared before me. 

Y/N L/N

Please select your primary position:

PG SG SF PF C...

I was presented with 5 options, these were of course the positions in basketball. Before this, I was a small forward so I just went ahead and selected it since I know it well.

SF selected.

Choose your Height, Weight, & Wingspan...

Height, weight, and wingspan, this is going to be very important to get right. I could go for a Lebron-type build and be 6'9" and 250 lbs, but that sounds a bit boring. I rather went with KD's frame but a bit bigger with a height of 6'10", weight of 245lbs, and a 7'5" wingspan.

Select your Archetype...

My current "archetype" obviously wasn't good enough for the league. I thought about what was currently in the league and what there needed to be more of. So of course being an SF, I choose 3&D Wing. 

3&D Wing selected.

NBA Comparisons:

Danny Green, Royce O'Neal, Kent Bazemore

Select your Signature Moves...

This will probably be the most fun part, all the moves I get to pick. It seems not many of the superstar moves are available like James Harden's moving stepback. I guess that makes sense, this is kinda like 2K where your ratings need to be high enough for certain moves. Oh wait, The System did give me a choice about my jump shot, okay I'll just pick Curry's or something...yeah there ain't many options and Curry definitely ain't one. I had to pick between Kent Bazemore, Trey Burke, Rudy Gay, and Dante Exum's jump shots. Out of these options, it was obvious Dante Exum had to be my base. I was surprised they gave me Rudy Gay as an option for a jump shot right off the bat, if you knew 2K then you'd know his was pretty good. I selected Rudy Gay for my release and moved on to the final screen.

Dante Exum Lower/Base & Rudy Gay Upper Release selected.

Select your badges...

Badges? Wow, so this really is like 2K. It seems that I could select a badge in every category. I selected Fearless Finisher, Catch & Shoot, Space Creator, Clamps, Lob City Finisher, and Rebound Chaser.

Badges selected.

Here are your Vitals and Attributes, good luck.

VITALS
Name: Y/N L/N
Position: Small Forward
College/From: N/A
Age: 19
Years Pro: 0
Jersey Number: 11
Shooting Hand: Either
Dunk Hand: Either
Peak Start Age: N/A
Peak End Age: N/A
Potential: 99
Injury: N/A
Play Types: 3PT, P&R Ball Handler
Team: Free Agent

ATTRIBUTES
Layup: 60
Post Fade: 40
Post Hook: 40
Post Control: 60
Draw Foul: 65
Close Shot: 60
Mid-Range Shot: 60
Three-Point Shot: 85
Free Throw: 60
Ball Handle: 65
Pass IQ: 60
Pass Accuracy: 60
Offensive Rebounding: 35
Standing Dunk: 60
Driving Dunk: 60
Shot IQ: 70
Pass Vision: 30
Hands: 70
Defensive Rebounding: 35
Interior Defense: 70
Perimeter Defense: 85
Block: 65
Steal: 65
Lateral Quickness: 70
Speed: 70
Speed W/ Ball: 70
Acceleration: 70
Vertical: 70
Strength: 40
Stamina: 80
Hustle: 80
Pass Perception: 70
Defensive Consistency: 70
Help Defense IQ: 70
Offensive Consistency: 70

Overall: 70

Well, there certainly was work that needed to be done. I felt alright with what they were at the moment. I could definitely guard most players in the NBA with 85 perimeter defense. Besides my 85 3 pt shot, my scoring was absolutely abysmal though. There were some other notes that I mostly just scanned over. My new universe is almost the same as the old one, but not quite. The games here are very high scoring. The salary cap is 125 million and not 109 million. Players regress a lot slower here than in the other universe, I wonder how long Lebron will play here. The final thing that I saw was that I was a free agent. I wonder whether I'd get a call from a team or if I would have to go try out for one.