The First Pick

“With time winding down on the clock the Hawkeyes are losing 110-112 and there is ten seconds on the clock.” said the announcer. James called for a screen and he got it, he ran around his man and went for the three, game on the line. If he misses this then they just lost the championship. The clock was at three seconds when he shot it and at that moment James saw the clock hit zero and the ball rolling around the rim, the ball was doing the toilet and a few seconds later it rolled in. Everyone on the team was running at James who was on the ground cheering. Hawkeyes just won the March Madness tournament for the first time in school history.

It was June 24, the day before the draft and James was the number one overall pick for the 2016 NBA draft. James was in Brooklyn for a few days and that night James and his parents all had a goodnights rest. The next morning they all got up at around 10:00 in the morning and ate something. They had all day so they went out and had fun until about 5:00. They got ready to go to the draft and took off. They arrived at about 6:00 and talked for a while to other people.

Finally it was time for the draft. James was excited and nervous, but he wasn’t worried. He knew he would be drafted early, his parents did to. Adam Silver then comes walking out from backstage.

“Hello everyone, we are here with the 2016 NBA draft, we will start shortly.”

James was nervous but excited, he was finally achieving his goal of getting to the NBA. James's parents were rubbing him on the shoulder and telling him that he is finally here, in the draft.

“Hello everyone my name is Adam Silver and we are now starting the NBA Draft, With the first pick of the NBA Draft the New York Knicks select James Bookerson from Des Moines, Iowa.” The whole New York fan section was cheering and yelling, everyone else was clapping and James was smiling. James got up and hugged his parents and a few friends. He made his way up to the stage to get his jersey and hat. He shaked Adam Silver’s hand and took the Jersey and hat and put the hat on. He held the jersey and took a picture with Adam Silver.

The next day James and his family took a flight back to Des Moines and got all the stuff they needed. James grabbed all his stuff and took a flight back to New York, where he bought a house.

James started practicing with the Knicks and they had a solid looking team. James was starting the shooting guard position, since they had Carmelo Anthony at small forward, which was a great player. The off season training helped James a lot, his jumpshot improved and he had more dribble moves. But the preseason was coming and James was ready, first game they were supposed to face the Philadelphia 76ers.  The 76ers previous seasons were terrible but this year they got some good picks. We were playing the first game home which is a major advantage for us.

The first game was tomorrow and we were ready, we all came to the gym and had a shooting practice, two solid hours of just shooting. Coaches told us not to push to hard, because the last thing they wanted is for someone to pull something or hurt themselves.

Today is the day, the game is at 7:00 tonight so James shot from around 2:00 to 3:00. James went to the garden at about 5 for team warmups and go over plays. Now was the time, they all went out to the court and got in their positions. It was James’s 1st game debut and he needed to show people he wasn’t scared of them just because they are in the NBA. James had a good first half scoring about 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. at halftime the score was 54 to 43 with the Knicks winning. Coach was telling everybody to step up their game and that we should be leading by 20 at the minimum. James and the Knicks finished off the game 103 to 89. James score 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. James’s debut was amazing.

The next few days they practiced hard and it was once again game day. The game was against the Boston Celtics, who were 0-1, which they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The game was another solid win for the Knicks who came out winning by 15 points, 105-90. The rest of the preseason carried out well they were 5-3 in the end. The regular season started though, which they ended up being 43-39. Good enough to make the playoffs, which was good saying last season they didn’t. The first round of the playoffs they had to face the Washington Wizards which they won 1 game against but lost 2. The Knicks and James came out strong though they won the first 2 games then lost. They won the next game to make the series 3-1. The Knicks then won the last game which advanced them to the next round, where they faced the Oklahoma Thunder.

They faced them twice during the regular season and lost both games. The Thunder came out strong and won the first three games but James and the knicks came out and won the next two. Though they won those games the Thunder came back and won the next game, which eliminated the Knicks. The Thunder went on to face the Warriors in the Finals in which the Thunder won.

James was proud of him and the Knicks though, they made it to the playoffs, James averaged 

20.4 points a game, 5.7 assists a game, and 6.1 rebounds a game. James also won the rookie of the 

year award. James then went on with his team to get better.