Chapter 1 

                                     Normal life

Zyaire Miller finally has a normal life after the incident that happened a year ago when his consciousness went into the body of NBA Superstar Anthony Edwards.

He is now 15 years old playing for the junior basketball high school team of St. Patricks Fighting Irish.

“Yo wassup Zyaire!” Said Jerome Daughtery, AKA his best friend and teammate of Zyaire.

“You ready for the game?” Asked Zyaire.

“Of course!”

They were going against the North Vikings, the basketball team that represents Northern Collegiate. 

They aren’t really a competition, but a game is a game.

They both went inside their local school gym, it was huge, full of banners from different tournaments. The court was as clean as the dishes when washed and out on a drying rack.

The two’s eyes sparkled in glory.

Their, they heard basketball shoes squeaking, and players already gulping water because of their tiring warmup.

“Wait Zyaire you got new shoes?”

“Ye, I did.”

“Didn’t you just get the AE1’s and Dame 9’s two months ago for Christmas?!”

“Ya, but I feel like I wanted more.” Answered Zyaire.

“Woah, those WOW 11’s look so nice.”

“Alright team huddle up!” Said their coach Jimmy Nash.

“Alright, as always use our signature 3-2 zone on defence, and work together as teammates on offence, no isolation plays, all teamwork.”

“Yes, coach!” Said the team in unison.

“Huddle up.” Said the Team Captain Caden Green.

“Alright, Irish on 3, one two three! Irish!” Said the team.

                                     Chapter 2

                        The Fighting Irish Spirit

Team Captain SG Caden Green, PG Zyaire Miller, SF Jerome Daughtery, C Elijah Freeman and PF John Will go on the court.

“Alright, everybody ready for the jump?” Said the referee wearing the original black striped referee shirt, with a Canadian badge on it.

All the players on the court nodded.

The referee threw the ball in the air, the beautiful orange basketball spinned gracefully, and the two centers jumped for it.

Of course, the Fighting Irish got the ball, the center, Elijah Freeman tipped it to Caden Green.

Green dribbled the ball slowly, and Zyaire got into his position on the right wing.

Caden passed the ball to Elijah Freeman, Elijah was big and tall for a 15-year-old, all muscle, height and basketball skills.

POUND! POUND! POUND!

Elijah dribbled the ball 3 times, then turned around and faked a post shot, he passed it to Zyaire Miller wide-open for three.

Miller caught it, and right away he released, his form was beautiful, and the ball spun gracefully. Swish.

“YA THAT’S MY SON!” Said Zyaire’s dad, Gerald.

“WE LOVE YOU ZYAIRE!” Said the cheerleaders.

Zyaire didn’t care for the girls, he cared for the game of basketball, family, friends and homework.

Anyways, the team played 2-3 zone, the Vikings brought the ball up, and the point guard of the Vikings was dribbling the ball with no off-arm, nothing, nothing!

“Easy steal,” Zyaire whispered to himself.

SWIPE!

Zyaire dribbled the ball, and the cheerleaders screamed.

“Ali, Ali!” Called Jerome.

Zyaire threw the ball to Jerome’s direction he was heading when he jumped high into the air.

Jerome catches the ball and slams it down.

“OH MY GAWD!” Said an old grandpa in the crowd.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Shouted Zyaire and Jerome while they dabbed each other up.

They both went back to the other half of the court.

The game went on and on. Surprisingly, it was a tough battle for the Fighting Irish, including when they beat the former champion contenders the North Vikings for the championship in a blowout.

It was the fourth quarter of the game, 10 seconds on the clock. 

Zyaire carried the ball, the bench warmer, Angelo King received the ball when Zyaire passed to him.

Angelo was a shooter, even for a 6’8 power forward who should be a master in the paint. 

Angelo killed time for a bit, killing 5 seconds on the clock, now there was only four seconds on the clock.

The three-point shot he was going to make was definitely 100% contested, but that guess was totally wrong.

SWISH.

“YOU GUYS DID IT!” Said Caden Green.

Zyaire and Angelo King’s dad emerged from the seats and tackled the two on the ground.

“FIGHTING IRISH!” Shouted Angelo.

                                        Chapter 3

               A Shocking Discovery in The Closet

Zyaire, his dad, and his mom decided to invite Jerome and his parents over for dinner.

Zyaire and Jerome decided to go upstairs to play some 2K25 after they eat Zyaire's mom classic Spaghetti.

Zyaire opened his closet door to find his U15 Canadian Jersey, which for some reason, every 2k game he played, that jersey gave him luck.

He heard a weird car vroom-like sound.

Eh, it’s probably nothing, thought Zyaire.

He went through all of his jersey collection and sweaters in that closet, but he saw a weird glowing yellow circle, it was making that same car vroom-like noise. 

Jerome looked over.

“What the fudge is that?!” Asked Jerome.

“I don’t know what that is either.” Said Zyaire.

All of a sudden the “yellow circle thingy” vacuumed the two in, and everything went black.

                                       Chapter 4

               Basketball World and Monsters?!

Zyaire opened his eyes and saw he was in what seemed like a futuristic basketball themed coliseum.. 

“Mom? Dad? Where you at?” Said Zyaire still lying down on the hard stone floor.

Jerome heard him and woke up, his eyes were blurry.

“Who is that?!” Said Jerome.

“Huh what, huh?” Zyaire’s eyes were still blurry.

Then he saw a red, glowy basketball with a body, and long hair and beard like he was a Greek God.

“Welcome Zyaire Isiah Miller and Jerome Ansai Daughtery to the world of The GladiBall World.” 

“What the Gladiator baseball what?” Questioned Jerome.

The weird godly-like figure ignored him.

“Anyways, we brought you here with multiple other young basketball prospects and a few NBA GOATS to 

Be in the GladiBall World.” 

“Michael Jordan, Steph Curry, LeBron James?” 

“Yes, those three plus a few other players.”

“We brought you here to challenge the best of the best basketball players in this realm.”

“So like Space Jam 1 and 2?” Asked Zyaire.

“Yes, in order to get back to your world of Earth, you must win the GladiBall Championships which start tomorrow, or else you must stay here for a year until the next Championship starts, and if you don’t win the next the cycle repeats and you’ll have no way back.” The godly figure faded away magically.

“You are the last additions to the team that we need, originally there were 8, but now there are 10 with you two now.” Said a mysterious skinny figure wearing a red jersey and shorts.

“You are the last additions to the team that we need, originally there were 8, but now there are 10 with you two now.” Said a mysterious skinny figure wearing a red jersey and shorts.

He walked out of the shadows and he was revealed as the great Michael Jeffrey Jordan.

Jerome pretended to faint on the ground.

“How are you not old?” Said Zyaire.

“Oh, this godly-like thing turned me back to my form back in 1996.

“Woah.”

“Anyways follow me.”

The two followed Michael Jordan to a gladiator-like entrance. 

“Welcome to the team.”

When they looked in front of them, there standing were seven other players; Ace Bailey, Victor Wembanyama, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Shaquille O’Neal, and A.J Dybantsa.

The two fainted.

After the two got up, they saw 10 figures standing in the distance.

“That’s the first team we’ll face against.” Said AJ Dybantsa.

“Oh.”

“Wait why aren’t their humans or atleast humanoid figures here?” Asked Jerome.

“This a world full of basketball loving monsters and other creatures, that’s why.” Explained LeBron.

“Wait so when their posting us up, their monster spikes will impale us?”

“Nah, those spikes retract, and they don’t allow it in games.”

“Ah okay.”

Man I can’t believe I had a conversation with flippin’ LeBron James, thought Jerome.

                                       Chapter 5

                                 Training Session

“Alright, I know that most of you guys don’t know you, and of course we know our teammates through basketball, so lets hold a 5v5 session. Any volunteers for Team Captain?”

“Ohh Michael, can I be one?” Said AJ.

“Sure. I’ll also be a Team Captain.”

They played rock papers scissors, and on first try AJ won, because Michael chose scissors, and AJ chose rock.

“I choose Steph Curry.” Chose AJ.

“Uh Ace Bailey.”

“I choose LeBron James.”

“I choose Shaquille O’Neal.

“I choose Zyaire Miller.”

“I choose Jerome Daughtery.”

“I choose Victor Wembanyama.”

“Finally I choose Kyrie Irving.” Said Michael finalizing the draft.

AJ’s team started first because their team was more young then Michael Jordan’s.

AJ inbounded to Zyaire, and Zyaire brought the ball up.

Zyaire took a deep breath and passed to Steph Curry.

Curry was guarded by one of the most intriguing College prospects who is now on the Toronto Raptors.

But Ace was no match for Currys three. Swish.

Now it was MJ’s turn to show his prime, instead of showing one of his flashy dunks or fadeaways, instead he decided to make a simple pull-up three, another swish.

The game went on, the score unknown because nobody is keeping score, and the college and high school prospects really need to up their game if they want to play in the NBA.

Zyaire got the ball and he was guarded by his best friend Jerome.

He decided to go for a fadeaway.

He posted him up, then faked to the left with his pivot foot and fadeaway to the right. Swoosh.

The game went on, and they all decided to get some food from the cafeteria.

The cafeteria looked like nothing better than a normal middle school cafeteria, except that it was all futuristic looking with basketball paintings all over the walls.

And the food was nothing different then the normal food professional basketball players eat on a daily basis.

PB&J, chicken with rice, tofu, mixed veggies, every single version of egg (no literally), and water, Gatorade, and milk for the drink choices.

It seemed like this world was really into basketball. 

All the players got what they wanted, and ate it all in just a few minutes, you could really tell they were hungry.

Once they were done they went to their hotel rooms that were already booked when all the players teleported to the futuristic realm.

“Whats your room Jerome?” Asked Zyaire.

“Um 311, what about yours?”

“Oh 312! We’re both beside each other!” Answered Zyaire.

“Nice.” 

“Anyways, night.” Said Zyaire.

“Goo’ night.” Said Jerome back.

The two went inside their rooms unsure on what to see what how their room would look like.

“Woah.” Said Zyaire entering the room with his room card.

What he saw was really cool, it looked just like a normal hotel room made for one person, but it was really luxurious and big, it was built like a one person bedroom in a mansion.

“Oh no, I don’t have any clothes, I wasn’t ready for this trip to this realm.” Zyaire was worried.

But when he looked to the right, there was a suitcase.

When he got closer, their was a note in English surprisingly.

It said, “We stole some of your belongings, but here you go.” He didn’t know who did this or how did they get his belongings, but he just accepted it.

He opened the suitcase and there was 2 jerseys, his U15 Jersey and one he never seen before, it said Earthlings in graffiti style, with a cool design of the Earth with cartoonish eyes, legs, and arms, and a cool gradient blue and white for the main colour of the jersey.

He took it out of the suitcase and hold it to feel the quality and look at it closer.

“Woah.”

He put it back in the suitcase and took out the bathing towel he use to dry himself and entered the bathroom.

He put it on the towel hanger and stepped into the shower.

After he took in the shower he decided to watch some TV, and he watch some NBA highlights.

“Woah they somehow connected the NBA channel in this realm? Impressive.”

So far, Zyaire loved this place.

                              Chapter 6

                   Game 1 of GladiBall

Zyaire and his team woke up early in the morning at 5:00am to workout and train plays.

And now they were here on a really cool transparent basketball court ready to play against what seemed like  the best of the best Gladi-Basketball players.

Gladi stands for Gladiator because of how tiring basketball can be, there is more physicality and speed then a normal NBA player could accomplish in an NBA game.

And of course basketball stands for the sport of basketball obviously.

Then a strange looking guy appeared carrying a microphone.

“Woah, the GladiBall Championship is like the Rucker Park Basketball Tournament, except that the fans are sitting ina coliseum looking stands, am I right?” Said AJ.

“Yeah.” Zyaire was speechless.

“Welcome to the Gladi-Ball Championships!” This works like an NBA In-Season Tournament or the GBA In Season Tournament, It’s a one game elimination round tournament, and you get to win 100 Million Gladi-Dollars, or 110 Million USD/CAD for the new guys from Earth, please welcome the Earth Earthlings, as they will face against the Swish Kings!” 

“Really, Earth Earthlings, what type of name is that.” Said Stephen Curry.

“I don’t know.” Said Shaq.

The crowd of monsters from Yeti’s, Ogres, and humanoids screamed for them, they were excited to see what the humans from Earth could do.

There were also a few of the other tournament teams that will observe what the humans could do so they would know their moves.

The two starting Centers, Shaquille O’Neal, and a humanoid who’s last name is Kainan lined up for the jump.

The ball flew through the air but Prime Shaq was too

good, he won the jumpball easily.

Stephen Curry grabbed the ball and passed it to Kyrie.

“Kyrie you the most flashy player, show ‘em what you got!"

Cheered LeBron from the left side of the wing.

Kyrie used hsi famous dribble hesi, the defender recovered, but was not ready for the crossover Kyrie would do.

“Oh my look at that crossover he did!” Said one of the humanoids in the crowd.

Kyrie’s defender was on the ground wincing in bits of pain, and Kyrie was wide open for a three. Swish.

The crowd was speechless.

The brown coloured thin humanoid wearing a money themed jersey got up and received the ball from their Center, Kainan.