Stay in Your Lane | Lonzo Ball

Chapter 25

Lonzo

We spent the next two days in Oregon, keeping our routine of watching film, study hall and practicing in a nearby gym in preparation for tonight's game. Coach made sure we had time to have some fun while we were out here, although it was a business trip. We visited the nearby mall and went to a movie as a team bonding activity. It was always good to take a moment from being solely focused on basketball to enjoy kicking it with your brothers.

Izzy and I communicated throughout each day, whether it be via text, FaceTime, Snapchat or simply calling each other. Talking with her was almost addictive. We laughed constantly. She was the perfect remedy for keeping my spirits up after that tough loss. I hate that I let loosing irk me as much as it does sometimes, but as soon as I talked to her I'd forget about it. She had a game coming up on Sunday that she was super hyped for. From listening to her talk, I could tell how hungry she was to get back on the floor after a ten day break from the game day atmosphere. I couldn't wait to see her do her thing.

When my boys and I hit the floor, we were on a mission to bounce back from our first loss. We did just that. After coming out with a fast start, we kept our foot on the pedal and didn't let up. Along with our aggressiveness, we were pretty much flawless in all of the stat columns. Coach gave us our props for gaining our first conference win, but reminded us that in five days our schedule would pick up and we'd have to perform at this level almost every other night.

We showered, ate dinner and boarded the bus to head to the airport. I was ready to get back to my dorm and sleep in my bed, so I was grateful for coach electing for us to take a two hour flight over a fourteen hour bus ride.

Rather than waiting for her to text me, I decided to call Izzy. It was almost midnight, but she was wide awake. Since we were out of town, the girls practiced twice early in the morning and noon leaving them to have the whole day to themselves. Izzy had gotten in a workout of her own and took a four hour nap, something that I'm looking forward to doing tomorrow along with sleeping in.

"You had a solid game. Almost had a double double. You were attacking the basket way more. It was like the perfect balance of being uber aggressive but still getting your team involved," she said, "the biggest thing to me was how you were on defense though."

"Damn, so the four threes I drained wasn't hot?" I joked.

She laughed, "Nah, who cares if you can score. The fact that you as the point guard had like 7 defensive rebounds and these crazy blocks is what's dope. It ain't all about scoring."

"Oh yeah, I know. It was 8 rebounds and three blocks by the way."

"Shut up. I was close."

We continued our conversation as the bus pulled up to the airport. One of the luxuries of being a Divison 1 school is that we have our own charter plane. We just pull up and hop on, no walking through airports, waiting in lines and traveling with other folks.

"Hey, Iz. We're about to get on the plane."

"Okay, how long is the flight?"

"About two hours. Well probably be back on campus around a little after three."

I scratched my head, thinking about the feeling I was having of wanting to see her when I got there and not wanting to wait until the next day. I didn't want it to seem like I was up to something though. Inviting a girl over to your room this late at night kind of sent a different message.

"Okay, well just text me when y'all land so I know you made it. I'll probably be up anyway watching videos on YouTube, but I'll definitely see you tomorrow after you've gotten some rest."