God of basketball

Previously

…The heat of the day was starting to recede, replaced by a gentle evening breeze. But inside Alex, a different kind of heat was building, a quiet inferno of possibility. He looked down at his hands, the hands that had learned to coax magic from a worn leather ball. He still felt like Alex, the quiet kid. But now, there was something else, something new and exciting, stirring within him. The game had found him, and in finding the game, Alex was beginning to find himself. The dusty sidewalk court had been his secret sanctuary, his private stage. Now, it felt like a doorway, opening onto a future he had never dared to imagine.