The regular season was officially over after that last game; we had two weeks to relax before the playoffs began. The playoffs consisted of only sixteen of the best teams from all over the world. It surprised me when the coach told us that the regular season was over because I was used to long seasons with lots of games. Still, the military was different; one such difference was their short regular season. Their playoffs were also not as big as the NBA's since they weren't getting many sponsors.h.i.+ps. In the playoffs, after losing one game, they eliminated your team from the whole compet.i.tion. Doubly shocked, I never heard of a playoff series using only one set to determine who was the best. 

Our team, the ground force, was the number one seed, so we're supposed to be facing off against the number 6 seed, which in my mind didn't make sense. Why would you have the best team face off against the worst? I almost felt bad for them now. Whatever happens, happens. They were just a little unlucky, whoever they were. I didn't overthink it too much, as I got back to enjoying our mini-vacation; We were traveling through Europe, touring historical grounds, experiencing it all with Rihanna and Paige. We ate authentic Italian pizza in Naples. We made love on the Eiffel Tower, Paris, and went to the Bridge of Sighs, Venice, Italy, amongst many other unique tourist sites.

The guys from the team took a trip to the red-light district, and after experiencing it for myself once, it opened my eyes to all kinds of new s.e.xual techniques and positions I wanted to try with my ladies. After everyone enjoyed themselves, we all returned to London, to get ready for some hardcore training, preparing ourselves for the playoffs.

I trained with them to be their motivator and role model. I'd come far from when I was back in middle school when I didn't even want to show up for practice, being overconfident in my skills and turning a blind eye to my teammates. However, this time around, I wanted to do what was right and be an example of not only those around me but my fans and fans of basketball all around the globe. 

My brand, I didn't want it to stop at just basketball; I wanted it to be far-reaching, known throughout the world, whether it's for music, sports, or business. I finally contacted the Nigerian team's coach, Nwora, for the soon approaching Olympics this year. It exasperated Coach Nwora that I was calling after not hearing from me for quite a long time; he probably thought I had ditched them.

However, having listened to my voice finally, and learning that I would make it for the Olympics made his doubts fly away. To be the first African team to end up in the Olympics, it was quite an honor. 

I felt excited to be a part of history, in my past life, Nigeria's performance was okay... well, let me not lie; they were pretty bad. Team USA had set a record against them, beating them by over 50 points, so the disgrace that they had received when they came back home didn't motivate them to continue; but, for some reason, they joined the next Olympics, and as the basketball world continued to evolve, other African countries took part in the Olympics too. I was watching the NBA finals as I noticed that LeBron wasn't in it, so I called him to ask what happened. LeBron's only response was s.h.i.+t happens, gotta move on. 

I could tell it hurt him, not being able to play at that higher level, so I gave him some motivational words and promised, "If I don't end up in Cleveland, come to the team I end up on." This sparked a flame in his heart as he retorted, "Don't play with me. I'll announce if Cleveland doesn't get their act together." I laughed at his antics and rea.s.sured him we would play together one day. The Boston Celtics, top-seeded champions of the Eastern Conference, defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, top-seeded champions of the Western Conference, four games to two in a best-of-seven series. This was Boston's first t.i.tle since 1986, during the Larry Bird era and 17th overall.

The 2008 Boston Celtics champions.h.i.+p team was famously led by the organization's "Big 3"; Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. Before acquiring Ray Allen from the Seattle SuperSonics and Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves in a blockbuster 7-to-1 player trade, Boston had won just 24 of its 82 games in the 2006-07 NBA regular season. The formation of the All-Star trifecta in the summer of 2007 positioned the new-look Celtics as a popular favorite to win the 2008 NBA Finals. After speaking with LeBron a little, I spent a few more hours catching up with everybody that I had not spoken to in a while, which were my best friends John, Shawn, Steven, Desmond, and the rest of the old crew.

I had talked to Nate, who was also part of our team but had become a rapper, signing a deal with my upcoming record label. He thanked me on the phone for giving him this big chance that he would work hard to be a superstar in the industry. I had even given him some future artist records as they were played on the preview that Rihanna had started. We were officially on air, but we were only putting up a few songs from our artists. Surprisingly, it was the best way to kick start the music label. It created a lot of buzzes and calls came left-right and center; artists who wanted to collaborate with us, even radio stations, reached out, wanting to hop on a track or play our music.

Unfortunately for them, we had a tight leash on security detail, and we didn't let any other companies take our work as we wanted to monopolize the game. People that wanted to listen to the music from our label had to sign up for a monthly subscription, and I was contemplating on the future music business, especially the next artist. Should I steal all of their works? Or rather wait for them to pop up in the industry and s.n.a.t.c.h them up before anyone else?