[trekfan]

Ch. 3






“You’re *hitting me!” she exclaimed as she leapt out of her chair. Helena Ramirez couldn’t hide the surprise — or the smile — on her face as she read the headline, plastered at the top of ESPN.com as “Breaking News” that the Wizards had found their new head coach, merely days after wiping out the previous staff like a bad stain.



She had never expected to see the coach they hired back in the league, but then she had never expected Ronald Bazemore to ever be a coach in the NBA. The man had come from overseas with a resume that was, back in 1996, as untraditional as you would find — but he paved the way for so many coaches from the international scene to make their mark in the NBA.



“I see you saw the news,” her editor — and friend — Vonny Lee — said as he popped his head out of his office, guitar pick rubber-banded to his glasses. “I thought that name sounded familiar.”



“He’s back,” she exclaimed with a laugh. “Oh my god, I thought he’d never be back!”



Vonny waved her in and she followed, shutting the office door behind her. He causally sat on his coach, picked up his acoustic guitar — an office decoration as much as thinking piece for him — took the pick off his glasses and began strumming. “So, this guy; what can you tell me?”



“Tell you? He’s a two-time NBA champion, back-to-back, he coached Kobe Bryant his first two years before Riley swooped in and screwed that relationship up.” She still got mad at the damned hubris of Riley — that Heat team could have three-peated with Kobe and the core Bazemore had assembled. Instead, the owners locked out the players in 1998, Riley got hired, and Kobe demanded a trade out as the months of the lockout dragged on.



One of the great “What ifs” of the NBA’s history in her mind.



“Yeah, yeah, I read the Wiki entry,” Vonny joked. He looked up from his guitar and tapped the pick against it lightly. “You wrote him about a lot down in Miami, you were the reporter he trusted the most.”



She nodded. “I absolutely had an in with him,” she said with a bit of pride. “Those articles, that coverage, it helped land me here at Grantland. Without all that, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”



“You think you could get an interview with him again?”



She tapped the bottom of her lip with her index finger. “I think so … it’s been two years since we talked. I followed up with in 2008 to cover that 1998 title, the ten year anniversary.”



Vonny nodded happily. “Great piece. All right, let’s call him up and see if he’ll agree to interview. When a two-time champion head coach comes out of a dozen year retirement to take over a team like the Wizards, it’s a story worth following up on.”



“Agreed, I’ll give him a ring.” She shook her head. “This is gonna be something, he wouldn’t have come back for just anything. He was one of the most radical coaches of his time, Vonny; he’s been quiet for so long, so far out of the spotlight … if he’s back, it’s going to be good.”



“Good.” Vonny cracked a smile. “We need the content.”