Joe Arbitello POV 21:00
In the basketball coach's office at Christ the King Regional High School, a lamp could be seen lit next to a desk, and at it, a man was looking at a player's data sheet.
"Aaron Reed," Joe muttered in a low voice, savoring the name.
He remembered the videos he saw of him in middle school and how he dominated the paint with his physique; along with his leadership ability and mentality, they made him look like a high school player playing against children.
But it was one thing to see videos and quite another to have the recent data of this player on your desk.
"Is he even human?" Joe said with incredulity, going over the sheet with the data for the 3rd time as if he had been mistaken in some measurement; but the data simply remained there without any change.
"It's as if he were born to play basketball," Joe said this time with certainty, looking away from the data sheet.
Suddenly he feels footsteps approaching him, followed by the sound of the door.
"Still here?" asked Artie Cox, Joe's most trusted assistant.
"Yes," was Joe's simple response along with a tired sigh.
Artie, looking at the sheet that was in front of the desk, could deduce the reason why Joe was still here so late.
"I see why you haven't left yet," Artie said with a smile as he took the sheet from Joe's desk to give the data a look.
"Phew," Artie whistled as he looked closely at the data recorded by Aaron.
"I had the same reaction as soon as I saw his data," Joe said with a smile at Artie's reaction.
"He doesn't look like a 9th-grade student," was Artie's simple response.
"I know," Joe said.
"Are you thinking of putting him on the varsity team?" Artie asked this time with more seriousness, implying how crucial this decision would be for the season.
"That's the hard part," Joe said with a tired tone as he leaned back in his chair, giving to understand the problem that kept him here all afternoon.
"I understand," Artie said, thinking that if he were the one making the decision, he would be just as bad or worse than his friend.
"Physically he has the requirements and even exceeds them in some metrics," Joe said, giving his experienced analysis.
"But?" Artie said, knowing there's always a "but" after that.
"I'm worried about team cohesion," Joe said, thinking from his players' point of view.
"That's true," Artie said, thinking that the starters wouldn't be pleased that a freshman takes one of their spots.
"Remember what happened last year," Joe said with a tired sigh as he remembered last season.
Last season Christ the King finished in 1st place with a 25-4 overall record and 9-1 in the league, but cohesion was a problem that gave Joe several gray hairs.
The team didn't click as much as it should have, and it was all due to one player: Maurice Barrow. As soon as he moved up to the team, he began to become the locker room leader and dominate the league.
He is a solid and versatile 6'4'' forward; Rivals rated him as a 3-star prospect and member of the New York All-City first team.
Now in his final year, he wants to win another championship to get more offers from D1 programs, but from what my contacts tell me, he has just reached a pre-agreement with Fairfield University.
A solid D1 team, but without many aspirations to win titles in the following years; but Maurice knows that at least at that university he will be able to be a starter and have stable playing time.
"Yes, he tends to hog the ball a lot," Artie said with a slight exasperated tone in his voice as he remembered all the arguments he has had with the kid about that same problem.
"He knows he's the best player," Joe said with a tired smile.
"Yes, but still, that doesn't change the fact that it makes us lose plays because of that," Artie said tiredly.
"Yes," Joe said.
Then heading toward the whiteboard next to the desk, he was seen observing the starting lineup he had in mind for the season:
Point Guard: Corey Edwards Shooting Guard: Omar Calhoun Small Forward: Maurice Barrow (Captain) Power Forward: Roland Brown Center: Dominykas Milka / Aaron Reed
The only point where he had doubts was in the center position: whether he should trust Dominykas or Aaron, veteran or new player.
Dominykas was a veteran on the team; despite not being a starred prospect, he was solid and knew the system, while Aaron still didn't know the plays or have a relationship with the team.
"Dominykas is solid," Artie said looking at the lineup.
"He's solid defensively but slow for fast breaks," Joe said while looking at Dominykas' statistics.
He averaged 11.2 points and 4.3 rebounds last season; solid numbers but nothing remarkable, but enough to finish on the city's 3rd team last year.
Then his gaze moved to the breakdown of Aaron's statistics throughout middle school.
Aaron Reed: 18.5 points, 14.2 rebounds on average. If you gave the list to anyone without telling them who the senior player is, many would believe Aaron is the senior.
And the most unheard-of part is the other statistics: 8.5 assists, 4.8 blocks, 2.1 steals and a 68% FG%; something unheard of for a position like center, which are not known for taking triples.
The only bad thing is that if you don't know how he plays, he usually has a turnover average of 2.5 because sometimes his teammates can't keep up with him.
"Anyone who saw those numbers would doubt he was a real center," Artie said seeing the compilation of Aaron's middle school statistics.
"He's a unicorn," Joe said with a smile thinking about the luck they had knowing Aaron decided to come to the Royals.
"Our unicorn," Artie said sharing Joe's same smile.
"I still can't believe he chose us," Joe said remembering how requested Aaron was for all the high schools in Queens and New York in general; but somehow he chose to come to Christ the King.
"And now we have the problem of deciding if he will play as a starter," Artie said, pulling Joe out of his daydream.
At that, the smile on Joe's face disappeared, returning to that frown remembering the reason why he was still in his office and not at his home resting.
"Ugh," Joe let out a tired sigh.
After that, a silence fell in the office while both men looked at the whiteboard debating what to do.
"What if we put him on the junior team?" Artie asked thinking that could be the solution to the problem.
"His stats and metrics show he's ready for varsity; at the junior level he won't have much competition," Joe responded knowing he had already considered that option.
"I never thought the day would come when we'd have problems because a player is better than average," Artie said with a tired smile.
"Don't even tell me," Joe said just as tired.
After that, both were seen discussing pros and cons for the next 30 minutes on how to line up the players.
"I think we're overthinking it," Artie said tiredly and with a desire to be anywhere but here.
"Well, we haven't reached anything yet," Joe replied, just as tired or even more than Artie.
"What if we have them take turns?" Artie suggested. "One game Dominykas starts and the next one Aaron," he finished saying, believing that was finally his solution.
"That could work," Joe would say murmuring and thinking about the viability of that solution.
Then shaking his head he said, "Dominykas is in his last year and still doesn't have great offers; I don't think he'll want to cut his playing time," Joe said.
"And bench?" Artie replied, trying to end the matter once and for all.
"Dominykas or Aaron?" Joe asked.
"Aaron," Artie began to say. "Even though he's a great player, we can't expect him to have great chemistry with the whole team in just a few months before the season," he finished saying.
"You're right about that," Joe muttered as he checked Aaron's data sheet again.
"Wait," Joe said quickly as he re-checked the data and a new idea formed in his mind.
Then approaching the board he removed Roland Brown's name and changed it for Aaron's.
"You want him to play as power forward?" Artie said with a slight trace of surprise in his voice trying to understand his friend's reasoning.
"Technically he can do it," Joe said while showing Aaron's data to Artie.
"I don't know, Joe," Artie said believing his friend had gone crazy.
"Sure, he has the data and characteristics to play as power forward, but in his whole career I've never seen him play in any position other than center.
"Dirk Nowitzki played as a center in 2003-04," was Joe's response.
"We're talking about a high school student, not an NBA star," Artie replied, pulling his friend out of his dreams.
"We can test it in tomorrow's matchups," Joe said.
"Do you think he'll accept?" Artie asked doubtfully.
"From what I saw he's a mature person; if we give him the reasons I don't think he'll refuse to try it," Joe said trying to make Artie understand his reasoning.
"If you say so, but we'll have to talk to Derrick so he works with him," Artie said already accepting Joe's idea.
"Maurice won't like this at all," Artie said gravely. "Roland is practically his lackey; he won't like you taking him out of the lineup at all, and even less for someone in 9th grade," Artie finished saying.
"I'll handle that," Joe said with seriousness in his voice. "The only reason Roland is on the team is because there was no better candidate and as a favor to Maurice," was Joe's blunt response.
"Ok," Artie said looking at the new lineup that had been formed:
Point Guard: Corey Edwards Shooting Guard: Omar Calhoun Small Forward: Maurice Barrow (Captain) Power Forward: Aaron Reed Center: Dominykas Milka
"We have two youngsters on the team," Artie said while looking at Aaron and Omar's names, both 9th and 10th-grade students respectively.
"They will be the pillars for the coming years," Joe said with a smile seeing those two names.
"Don't even say it," Artie said with the same smile.
"How do you think tomorrow's game will turn out?" Artie asked as he and Joe turned off the lights and headed straight for the parking lot, finally ending the day.
"No idea, but I'm anxious to see what our wonder boy will do tomorrow," Joe said with a smile at the end.
"Don't even say it," Artie replied. "Do you know if any scout is coming tomorrow?" Artie asked.
"I understand one from Fairfield is coming tomorrow to see Maurice's progress," Joe responded, although he knew there would be more scouts in the stands.
And the thing is, as one of the most dominant high schools in the whole country, Christ the King was visited by many schools with D1 basketball programs in the NCAA.
Players like Lamar Odom or Jayson Williams are some of the names of players who went through this team and then reached the NBA.
"Well, I'm leaving before my wife leaves me outside," Artie said stretching and heading directly toward his car, ending the day.
"Likewise," Joe said heading also toward his car with a little more speed in his walk.
"Tomorrow will be a great day," Joe said with a smile looking forward to tomorrow.
"I hope you don't disappoint me, kid," Joe ended up murmuring as he started the car and set off toward his home before it was too late.
Author's thoughts
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