Impossible Dreams
About the Setting

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The Basketball Game - An Introduction for the clueless:

Each team has five players (and many bench players). In general, they are:

• Center: is a big and tall guy to control the area underneath the basket.
• Power Forward: another big guy, usually smaller than the center, helps control the basket, painted area, and rebounds, as well as shooting
• Small Forward: good in shooting and scoring, see below
• Shooting Guard:  good in shooting and scoring.
  Often there is no clear distinction between a small forward and a shooting guard, and many players who play one position well can also do an excellent job at the other position.  These players who can play both positions well are often called Swingman. (Tim Fowl, the guy who beats Rick's teams over and over, is a Swingman.)  Most small forwards are about 6'6 and up in the NBA.  You will see shooting guards of any height (from nearly 7' down to just 6' tall).
• Point Guard: he commands offensive plays.  Some point guards don't shoot a lot, while some will score half of the team's points.  Usually the point guard is the smallest guy in the court. Richard Hart is a point guard (the shortest point guard in NBA is Earl Boykins who is only 5'5).

You don't have to have all five positions on the court. You can send any five players out, actually you can send less than five. You can have a team with all small players, and of course you'll lose the height advantage and can't secure the basket and the paint (the area around the basket is painted), but you may be moving much faster. It depends on strategy and what you have.

Height is not the only, and actually not often, the key to win a basketball game. The game is about many factors: speed, height, strength, agility, accuracy, mobility, team work, strategy, psychological determination to win, and much more.  Since it's impossible for a player to play every minute in a game consistantly (especially given the schedule of the games), bench players always play a critical role in the games.

You get 2 points when you put the ball into the basket.  You get 3 when you throw the ball from behind a painted 3-point line (often refered to as: from behind the arc, from downtown). You get one point when you hit a free throw (standing at the free throw line, thus often called "from the line").

For information about the basketball court and associated terms, check out this page.

Lay-up: A player below the basket throws the ball up above the basket for it to drop into the basket.  This is in contrast to rising up above the basket and hit (or drop) the ball into the basket which is called dunk or slam dunk.  Lay-ups are often done by smaller players while dunks are carried out by by taller players or players who can fly high (the rim of the basket is 10 feet from the floor).

Alley-Opp (pass): When a player throws the ball to the basket, and another player catches the ball above (or near) the basket, and puts it into the basket (often forcefully - slam dunk or dunk) while still in the air.

Double-double: Officially means a player registers double digit figures in both scoring and rebounds in a game.  In rarer situations can also mean double digit figures in either two of the three catagories of scoring, rebounds, or assists.

Triple-double: A player registers double digit figures in all three catagories: scoring, rebounds, and assists in a game. This is a very difficult statistic to register, because small players usually can't get many rebounds, and big players rarely can dish out many assists.  Jason Kidd, one of the very best point guards in recent history, and often referred to being "Triple-double wating to happen", has made 66 triple doubles in his 11 years of NBA career so far. Most good or even great players don't make one triple-double in an entire year.

Charge: An offensive foul when the offensive player bumps into a defensive player while the defensive player is stationary. There are many fine rules about when exactly is it a charge, and when is it a defensive violation. In reality, a small player always has the advantage when he bumps into a big fellow, because he'll likely fall from the impact. A big and powerful guy like Shaquille O'Neal usually has the disadvantage because he can easily knock down a smaller player with just a soft touch (and players are good actors).

3-point Play: This does not mean shooting a 3-pointer.  It's when a player is fouled during his attempt to make a basket. The basket will be counted if the ball goes in, and he'll have a chance to shoot a free throw. If he makes the free throw, it becomes a 3-point play.  If the ball doesn't go in, he will shoot two free throws. Similarly, it will be a 4-point play when a player is fouled while attempting to shoot a 3-pointer. It's considered a stupid foul to hack a player attempting a 3-pointer, because making a 3-point shot is harder than making 3 free throws, and a 4-point play hurts the morale of the fouling team.

The NCAA

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) governs and organizes various college level sports events in the USA.  The most prominant ones are of course basketball and (American) football.  Scouts and agents from the NBA will look for future stars from outstanding players in the NCAA tournaments.  An outstanding NCAA basketball player generally means a future NBA player, which means a future millionaire even if he just plays professional games for a year.

Colleges tend to give generous scholarships and other perks to outstanding high school players (doesn't matter if they can spell their names) for them to attend their colleges.  NCAA championship games (mainly in these two ball games) bring great honor, exposure, and financial benefits to the schools.  It's not uncommon for a college basketball/football headcoach to make 10 times the money a senior professors does.

The NBA

The NBA (National Basketball Association)  is a professional basketball league in the USA, comprising of nearly all the best players in the world. 

The league is divided into two big 'conferences' - the East and the West.  Each team in the league plays 82 games (including home games and away games) from early November to late April (the regular season).  That's about 3 games a week, a very packed and busy schedule for the players and staff, and also very physically demanding.  They play against all teams in the league during the regular season.

The eight teams with the best records in each of the two conferences will advance to the Playoffs which begin from early May.  The East and the West Playoffs are mutually exclusive.  All elimination games are determined by a best-of-seven series.  The winner of the East and the winner of the West will play (also best-of-seven) for the National title (sometimes they claim it to be the World Title.)  Besides a big trophy (and great honor of course) awarded to the National Champion, each player in the ultimate winning team gets a NBA ring.  Thus, a player with a ring means he has won a title.

All entrants (new players) to the NBA will go through a "Drafting" process.  Entrants comes from colleges, high schools (may soon be banned), or professional players from overseas.  Generally, teams with the worst records get to pick first. The worst teams will go through a lottery process to determine which worst team gets the first pick, which gets the second pick, etc. Therefore, a team is called "lottery bound" if it is doing very badly, and is likely going to play the lottery. 

Quite often, when a team picks a "right" player (not necessary the first pick, Michael Jordan was a third pick. Many team executives and scouts are blind), they are destined to have a huge success (eg, Magic Johnson to LA Lakers, Larry Bird to Boston Celtecs, Michael Jordan to Chicago Bulls.)

Great NBA players can make more than $15 million a year (plus commercial endorsements).  A 10-year veteran players can not be hired for less than $1 million a year. Of course there are always players on the edge of unemployment who will take on a contract for as little as a few dozen thousand dollars a year. NBA headcoaches typically make between one to six million dollars a year.

Richard Hart, the legend in the story, plays for the New York Knicks, that hosts their home games at the renowned Madison Square Garden.

The Dancers

Many professional sports have cheerleaders.  The NBA doesn't really have cheerleaders. Dancers are not cheerleaders.  They don't lead the crowd to cheer.  They don't cheer themselves. They are professional dancers performing Jazz and other routines during half time and time-outs at home games (visiting teams don't take the dancers with them.)  All NBA teams have their dancer teams.  Dancers often appear in community events, sometimes even at commercial activities.

Dancer is not a full time job, because you make very little (if any) money from it, and generally you have to have a full time job or be a student to be considered. However, the excitement, exposure, and many other factors attract hundreds of women to chase for the few spots in a dancer team every year.  Usually, existing dancers will have to audition for the coming year's jobs alongside new applicants.

Many dancers also appear in other showbiz manifestation, such as MTV, commercials, etc. These are very nice looking and charming ladies, after all.

Most Dancer teams have their own names.  The New York Knicks' daner team is the Knicks City Dancers.

Big Names Mentioned in the story:

• Michael Jordan (aka MJ, retired), legend of legends, considered by many as the best basketball player ever; has six NBA titles, two Olympics gold medals and numerous awards.
• Earvin 'Magic' Johnson (aka Magic, retired), one of best players ever, handles the ball like magic (nearly nobody, including teammates, knows where the ball comes from or where it's going to), probably the most skillful player ever, also probably the only point guard ever who can play a center position well.
• Allan Iverson (aka AI), one of the leagues present smallest, most skillful, and quickest players, some also call him Cockroach because he won't die (he is constantly playing with injuries) and won't give up.
• Reggie Miller (retiring), famous for his buzzer-beating 3-point shots and clutch time performance, thus the term "Miller Time".
• Shaquille O'Neal (aka Shaq, Big Fella), probably the most dominant center ever, extremely powerful and agile, unstoppable when underneath the basket, poor free throw shooter, reason for and target of a dirty defensive strategy called "Hack-a-Shaq" (fouls him before he goes up, when it becomes impossible to stop him).
• Earl Boykins has not accomplanished anything close to these big name players, but at 5'5, he is the shortest NBA player by far (this in itself is already a near impossible achievement.)

Harlem Wizards professional entertainment team: They are not a team engaged in sports competitions. Comprised of former NBA and CBA players, as well as college standouts, they deliver entertaining showtime games with unparalleled thrilling and magical tricks and creativities.