BETWEEN WORLDS: BEHIND THE SCENES (CHAPTER 9)
Taking a look back at Chapter 9
Chapter 9 picks us up from the end of Chapter 8 as the rest of the team comes in to see Azeil in full training mode. First, it's surprising that Azeil is even there, as many of the players probably thought after the fight with Zahair that Azeil was never going to join the team. Second, Azeil is at the gym so early, working through his game, sweat all over his body, which shows his length of time there. Instantly, he's showing he's not being handed anything and will put in the required hours and then some in the gym to ensure he hones his craft and is on top of his game. In the real world, you hear stories about how the greats spent copious amounts of time in the gym, honing their craft, working through their game so they were ready. They treated it like a full-time job, and it more than paid off for them.
When you think back to how Langston Hughes felt after the game against Highland Prep, they were upset and hurt about losing it, about this kid off the bench being able to dominate in the way he did. Now they can see why and that endears them to him.
The second thing I wanted to make sure was that Azeil wasn't paired up with any of the starters or players we'd met thus far. I wanted him with another group of players. There's a story about Jimmy Butler when he played for the Timberwolves, taking a group of third-string players, and beating the starters with them. While Butler did his out of animosity, I liked the idea of a player showing their ability to raise the games of others around him and wanted to show that element of Azeil's game as he primarily plays distributor and helps take the second-string players up another level.
Still, you have that animosity and tension between Zahair and Azeil, but you start to see that the other players aren't supporting Zahair anymore and even Coach is ready to call out his behavior (though this is the first time he's seeing this first hand), which sends a message to the rest that it won't be tolerated. Azeil manages to lead the team to victory and earns the respect of his teammaets and the coach before we end with the coach wanting to talk to Azeil.
See you Monday for Chapter 10.
Hope you enjoyed this insight into Chapter 9. If you want to catch-up on BETWEEN WORLDS please check out the chapter index. In addition, be notified on the next post by subscribing below.