Pistol Pete’s Wild Wild Northwest
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 12:10 am
As I wake up for my first day back practicing with The Oklahoma City Thunder, going into my fourth season in the People’s Basketball Sim League, I can not help but look at everything that has lead me to this point. I proceed to walk down the hallway to the bathroom and brush my teeth. I pass by pictures of me in high school.
I started out in high school in Michigan at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, where it was not always the best. I got a scholarship through Greyhound where my parents worked. Mom worked at Greyhound as a ticket clerk during the day and worked at the local donut shop/ coffee truck stop and Dad was a bus driver for Greyhound. They did what they had to do, and supported me as best as they could, I still never saw them. This lead me to get in a lot of trouble. I would shoplift, steal bicycles to sell at pawn shops and would hot wire heavy machinery at construction sites while vaping juuls just for fun. While doing all of this, I was also playing basketball. The coach at the time let me do whatever I wanted because I was that good. I never went to practice, show up to games late that have already started, or would often have been drinking prior to games. That did not effect my play at all, or so I thought. I would score 30 points, 15 assists and 8 boards without even trying. I would also have nights where I would go 1-20 from the field and foul out with 10 minutes left in the game. Needless to say I was a hit or miss on and off the court.
Then, in the summer of my junior year, the school decided to change coaches. Apparently, Coach Mike Duddenhouzer was caught in a sting operation going to a massage parlor in Florida that did a little extra rubbing and some tugging for the right price. He was never convicted, but he was forced to admit that he was involved and was fired. That’s when Coach William Jimmons became the new head coach of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy.
Man, I knew from the first day of off season conditioning that I was in trouble. I was 40 minutes late and he had everyone running suicides continuously until I showed up. For the next two years, he became the type of leader and mentor that I needed in my life. I finally had someone in my life that I could call a mentor and show me right from wrong. I started going to class, stopped all of the juvenile law breaking and started actually caring about getting better at basketball. In my senior year of high school I averaged 32 points, 12 assists and 6 boards. I was all state for the state of Michigan. I went from a four star recruit who was considered a risk to a can’t miss five star prospect with offers coming in from all over the states. I even had teams like BC Prienu Vytautas in Lithuania and Real Madrid in Spain offer me deals to play for them for one year. I ultimately decided on Butler. It’s where Coach Jimmons played and he even knew the head coach so I felt very comfortable and with the program.
As I get into my 2018 Jaguar SUV
, I see a bracelet hanging from my rear view mirror that has a tag on it that says “Stay Humble” that Coach Jimmons gave me. College was tough for me. I knew I was only going to be there only one year because, let’s be honest I needed the money. As I said before, my family wasn’t exactly living the best life. My biggest problem was this was my first time being left alone without anyone like Coach Jimmons. I could have done anything I wanted and got away with it like I used to be able to. I do not mean anything bad against Butler, it is a great school and program with a lot of people there to help you. My problem was I would have to initiate the process for help, and that’s not me. So I was very tempted to hang out with guys who were doing the wrong things. What I did to avoid all of that was I became a hermit of sorts. I never did anything. I went to class, played ball went home. I did not even hang out with guys outside of practice unless they came over, and they could not bring anyone I did not know. This lead to a lot of stress anxiety and some depression. It also effected my game. While I had great skills and showed flashes of great plays. I was again playing like the stock market. Up and down, up and down. I was able to get Big East All Conference, but i think it was purely based on name alone and not merit. I thought I had ruined my career before it even started...
I park my car and walk into the Oklahoma City Thunder training facility for a training camp workout, I park in the same spot that I have parked in at the facility for the past few years since I was “assigned” this spot from Cheick just a few years ago my first week after the draft. Wow, what a time the draft was. I thought I was going to for sure be a late first round pick, especially after my workouts. But then on draft day I get a call from a 405 area code number. I answer it and when the voice on the other line said it was the General Manager for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Angrybanana, my mom fainted. I honestly could not tell you what he said after that too. It was all white noise. I was so shocked and excited. At last I had made it... later Angrybanana would go on to tell me how I was his first draft pick of the rebranded Oklahoma City Thunder, and how together we were going to rebuild this franchise from the ground up. He still calls me “foundation” sometimes, even though everyone else calls me “pistol”.
I sit up on the trainers table where I prepare to get taped up for the upcoming practice. I look over and see Clifton, I ask him how his weekend went and we chit chat for about 10 minutes about life while waiting on the trainers. It wasn’t always that case between us. My first season in Oklahoma City was not a pleasant one. I worked hard in the offseason to be ready for my rookie year but when the season came around, I only played in 18 games and saw next to no minutes. Time and the bench were best friends. We finished near the bottom of the standings that year and we managed to get the number one pick. This lead to Clifton getting drafted. I was furious when I heard this. They are calling ME the “foundation” but barley play me and draft another guard the following year! Man... Clifton is so nice too, haha.
He never had a chance when we first met. I would often turn the other way if we were going to walk by each other. I would bribe the kitchen staff to not serve him food. All sorts of things to piss him off. It was even worse on the court. I would never pass him the ball. On defense I would often times force call out formations that would cause him to switch on forwards. I would intentionally isolate him out of timeouts. It was brutal. He finally cracked one day at practice when we were playing five on five. We were both playing scrappy from the beginning and I hard checked him when he was trying to back me down. That lead to him throwing the ball at me and then a brawl began. After it all settled down, we were both sent home. I got in the next day and coach had put his locker right next to mine. I went into coaches office and he proceeded to call me out on all the crap I had been doing. Challenged me to be the leader he knew I could be and then said that wherever I go, Clifton would be next to me. On the bus, hotel rooms, training times. You name it we shared it, it was just like the movie “Like Mike” except Clifton was not a 12 year old wearing magical Jordan. Sure enough it worked though and we eventually connected. The funniest part of all is that it was a mutual love for the TV show the Umbrella Academy that caused us to bond. It lead to us talking about other shows we liked, including World Wrestling Entertainment. We even went to an episode of Raw when they came to Oklahoma City. The main event of the night was a match between Ricochet and Walter for the television championship.
Finally, while walking onto the court and reminiscing all day about the past few years it make me chuckle. I have lived a crazy life. I have been through so many trials that I have over came and now I get to play basketball in a great city and finally start to see that while yeah, my nickname is “pistol” I can finally see why Angrybanana calls me “foundation” and I look forward to proving him right. And if I beat Clifton in a game of 21 today, then hey, that’s even better!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk