I'm nervous as hell.

This is it. The championship game. We've made it all this way. But if we lose this game, it'll all be for nothing. I quickly pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I can't believe this is happening.

But before we go any further, let's take it back real quick.

My name is Philip Booker. I'm 19, and I love basketball. I play for my college team, the Florida State Seminoles, and we've made it all the way to the championship. It's usually pretty hard to get there, so that's kinda why I'm freaking out.

Then on the other hand, there's my team. To every regular student at Florida State, we're just basketball players. They cheer for us at games, but if we lose or get hurt most students don't care. But to everyone on the team, this is more than a team. We're more than just teammates. We're family. If someone gets hurt, it hurts all of us. We stick with each other through thick and thin, and this is the moment that all of our hard work and practice got us to.

"Yo Philip, you ready?" said Johnny. (His actual name is Jonathan, but most people call him Johnny. The coach calls him Isaac. He's kinda the best player on the team, in my opinion.)

"Yeah," I said. "Just nervous. Nervous as all hell."

"We feel you, man," said DB. (His name is Dwayne Bacon, but we just call him DB.) "It's scary for everyone."

"Yeah...", I replied, my voice trailing off.

I put on my jersey and headed out onto the court to loud cheers. I was used to both cheers and boos, so I hardly noticed.

The coach was waiting for us at the sideline. "Alright, I want Isaac starting at the four. Booker, I want you at the one. Bacon, you're at the two. Sutton, you're at the five. Robinson, you're at the three. Got it?" The five of us nodded and walked out onto the court. We were all pretty pumped. There's something about walking onto the court at the start of a game that pumps you up. Or maybe it's just us. As we took our spots on the court, Daniel Sutton, who probably looked up to me the most, said, "We got this."

I'm not sure why, but I believed him.

For the entire first half and most of the second half, the game was close. We couldn't get a lead, but neither could the other team, the Gonzaga Bulldogs. They won the title last year, so none of us expected this to be easy.

With about three minutes left on the clock, the coach subbed me in. I didn't go out there thinking it was hero time and I was gonna make the game winner. I just played and hoped we could gather a lead.

As we entered the last minute, the game was....still tied. Surprise surprise. The whole team was gassed, including me, and I don't think we had the energy to play an overtime period.

I passed the ball to DB, who, in a stroke of luck, was fouled.

He made both free throws, which was good, but it looked like Gonzaga was going to have the last possession, which was bad. I had a feeling they would try for three, so the moment they passed it to the worst shooter on the team, I fouled him.

It was my sixth foul. I was out of the game. I had intentionally fouled him so at most the game would be tied. I just hoped that I had made the right choice.

The guy I had fouled went to the line, and made the first free throw. I bit my lip and watched as the ref handed him the ball for his second.

He missed.

The moment it happened, the bench went crazy. There was really nothing they could do at this point, even if they fouled us to get the ball back. They knew it, too. The guy that missed the free throw looked like he was going to remember this day as the worst day of his life. His teammates weren't even speaking to him. Sutton ran the last few seconds off the clock, and that was it.

We were champions.

Our bench was empty, as everyone was on the court celebrating. This was a huge moment. We had lost in the playoffs twice since I've been here, and making a championship run was the best thing that could have happened to this team.

Like I said, this wasn't supposed to be an "underdogs win" story or anything like that. I didn't make a game-winning shot. But we won.

After a team celebration, we all went home. It was pretty late, so I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day, I woke up to find that I had received a letter. I'll just sum things up and say I was going to the NBA draft. I had been wondering if I would, and even stressing about it sometimes, so this was a huge relief. I called some of my teammates and found out that Johnny, DB and Sutton were going too. Robinson wanted to finish college, so he wasn't really concerned about not being invited. But for me, this was big.

Author's Note

First Chapter!!

I'm not really trying to be 100% accurate with every detail in this story, but if I got something wrong, please let me know.

By the way, I used my actual name for the main character, so sorry if it's lame :l