This was must win for MezzaninE.  Sure, Seattle still had Zahara to carry the flag but like the royal family an heir and a spare was always good for business so Chuck could see Mezz was pumped up and determined to get back on level terms.

PureBloodedTexan looked completely non-plussed by Mezz’s bluster so stood there waiting.

Mezz got the ball and wondered whether to try his luck at nailing a jump shot from distance and thinks against it.  He dribbles towards Texan who puts his hand on Mezz’s waist to stop him running past.  Mezz looks at Chuck who paid no attention…you don’t get fouls here.

Mezz walked back a little to make some room to try a drive but Texan lunged forward and got a small piece of the ball.  Mezz couldn’t control it.  This was getting scrappy and it was a definite steal by Texan.  Texan picked it up but was off balance and tried another jump shot before he stumbled backwards.  The ball bounced off the rim and away.

Both Mezz and Texan chased after it as the ball bounced off the arena wall.

Mezz grabbed it just before Texan and the two pulled at the ball.  Maybe it was Texan’s years of wrangling cattle that gave him a vice-like grip on the ball but Mezz was no match.  For all his silky skills he couldn’t draw on that experience.

Texan left Mezz for dead and made his simple layup.  Lots of effort out there on the floor but unfortunately for Mezz and the city of Seattle, things did not go right at the end. 

PureBloodedTexan 3

Mezzanine 1

PureBloodedTexan wins and goes forward to meet JimmyTheWeed - old Philly v new Philly!  Game on!

Mezz dusted himself down after what had been a hard fight with all the technical skill of an Olympiad. He was out of breath and flummoxed that his silky skills had been blown out of the water by the sheer might of the Texan. 

“Pure Blooded, more like Thoroughbred!” He marvelled. 

Mezz shook hands and congratulated PureBloodedTexan and retired too lick his wounds! 

Something fishy was about to go down at the As Yet Unnamed Arena.  humuhumunukunukuapua had left the comfort of the coral to turn out in front of his loyal Detroit fans.  And up against him is the mighty-ish Sisyphus and his fan club of Mercury.  There were other Philly fanatics in the arena as well so it was a vibrant atmosphere.

Chuck threw the ball up and unsurprisingly, given you know…he was not a fish, Sisyphus appeared with the ball.  For a fish though, humuhumu was all over Sisyphus getting all up in his face and putting him off and Sisyphus just could not get past him at all.  In desperation, Sisyphus tried his three point magic in a jump shot but it skinned off the rim.

Humuhumu grabbed the rebound.  Unable to dribble the ball through his legs he got quite inventive and managed to get his way past Sisyphus.  The crowd could not believe what they were seeing as he managed a weirdly effective fish layup.

Humuhumu 1

Sisyphus 0

FOUL! Mercury decried FOUL!

There was no doubt humu had fouled Sisyphus. This was an injustice from the start!!

Sisyphus was shocked at losing the first round.  Mercury was sitting quite subdued in the stands as well as her fave was behind already.  @humuhumunukunukuapua waved to his fans! 

Sisyphus started dribbling the ball, trying to look all confident.  Humuhumu shocked everyone by flying at the ball and knocking it straight out of Sisyphus’ hand.  The Detroit section squealed in delight as humuhumu got a hold of the ball but there was a groan as he struggled to control it quickly with his fins.

Sisyphus picked the ball up but humuhumu had other plans again and in a daring move got there quickly just as the ball hit the ground.  In the scramble, humuhumu managed to nudge the ball away from Sisyphus’ flailing grasp and his fans went wild!  Up to the hoop again for the plucky little fella from the sea!

Humuhumu 2

Sisyphus 0

Chuck shouted over the noise to @humuhumunukunukuapua that he was doing really well!

After hearing Chuck shout, he bowed to the referee and then refocused on the next lay-up. It was clear sisyphus was going to come down hard on him in the rounds left to play.

I'm not going to blame this slow start on humhumunukunkuapua's incessant flopping, but I will say that it has been a very terrible beginning for a man who perhaps promised too much. If I do lose, JimmyTheWeed will hopefully show up for Philadelphia as I have failed to do so.

But lets be honest, it isn't over until the whale sings. Time for round three.

Puts on his expensive gym shorts and limbers up a little before the second half.

Sisyphus was fizzing.  Steam was almost visibly peeping out his ears.  humuhumunukunukuapua was going to have to be careful to not become some poached side dish.  Mercury sat in the stands shouting that the outcome was unfair but things were looking dire for the Philly collective.

Sisyphus took the ball and ran at humuhumu.  He virtually ran over the poor little fishy.  It looked like a brutal assault but humuhumu got up ok quickly and somehow managed to get a block in.

Sisyphus was not in the mood to take prisoners at all and chased the loose ball.  Showing off that he could put the ball through his legs in a way that the fish couldn’t Sisyphus was totally flexing on humuhumu.  He charged at the fish again and showed what a real layup was.

Humuhumu 2

Sisyphus 1

Feeling a little dazed Humu felt like he really wanted the license plate of whichever truck just knocked him out. As he saw Sisyphus jumping for joy, he knew he had lost that round. Well as he collected his thoughts, he knew his fins had to be on their sharpest edge in order to make it to victory!!

The medics checked the battered fish over to make sure he was ok but humuhumunukunukuapua was made of tough stuff.  He had to be living by the coral.  Sisyphus was bent over breathing out of his ass after putting everything into that last round but he was on the scoreboard at last and Mercury was loving it.

Humuhumu grabbed a hold of the ball as well as he could given his limitations.  Sisyphus was looking slow on his feet though and as a fish who could flit through the ocean at high speed he looked to have the upper hand.  With a zoom to the left Sisyphus stumbled but humuhumu stopped suddenly and went right.  This totally confused Sisyphus and he ended up stumbling around and flailing his arms when humuhumu went past him.  This was curtains for the Philly favourite as humhumu rose high as he could and plonked it effortlessly through the hoop to take an epic victory!

Humuhumu 3

Sisyphus 1

Humuhumu zoomed around the arena in joyous abandon; like a fish in a tank let loose in the sea.  Here was hoping his next round matchup against Elodin or Zahara wouldn’t be like feeding him to the sharks.  Do raccoons eat fish?  We will maybe see!

Latom was still feeling quite disappointing in not reaching the knock out stage. She had tried to convince herself it didn't matter by doing all kinds of trivial task to keep herself occupied. Doing the dishes, laundry, grocery shopping and the likes. She was really really trying not to care. But yet here she was. Standing outside the gates trying to peak inside, getting some sort of glimpse of the action.

"- Perhaps an injury would give me the chance to play again." She muttered to herself as she saw Sisyphus finally winning a round. Perhaps he had finally found a competition to succeed in if he could turn the score around.

AS Humu had made the last hoop, he couldn't believe it. He had DONE IT, he had actually beaten a big human in a game of basketball.

However after the 1st crazy excitement leaving his body he remembered that a contest is not just about the victor. So he flopped over to Sisyphus and addressed him

Dear Sir, i thank you for the fair play opposition you gave me, i know from the pre-liminaries that we were closely matched and i had not expected such a fortuitous outcome. I wish you well in any future endeavors

@Charles-Barkley, thank you sir for organizing this wonderful event. I look forward to the next round, but just in case Elodin will be my opponent. Can you please set some criteria that every contest needs to at least bath or have taken a shower before the contest. If not i fear i shall have no chance of victory whatsoever

Chuck spotted Latom, the newly crowned boss of the Bronx hanging around outside.

Come in, come in.  I couldn't have someone as important as you slumming it in the parking lot.  All of the qualifiers are welcome here.  Just sit down there at the front.

Chuck pointed to the empty seats by the arena where they could see and feel what they had missed out on...he hadn't thought of it as a special kind of torture but maybe it was!!

Anyway Latom, you're too important now.  There's no other crew leaders here.  You don't want a sprained ankle for when you have to chase down your unruly members or stave a finger so you can't point when you're giving orders.  Much safer to be on the sidelines!

Before Latom had a chance to react she was pulled from her hiding spot and dragged over to an empty seat. Sitting down she could just about see how humuhumunukunukuapua secure his final round to make it into the next round. The spot she had been given was close enough to the court for you to be able to feel the atmosphere as well as getting a feeling you were in the game.

"- Perhaps you're right. I'll try my best to enjoy it from here."

Not being completely convinced Latom started scanning the arena for some snacks and refreshments. This had to do for now.

Welcome everyone to the last of the quarterfinals.  We have the great Zahara of Seattle against everyone’s favourite raccoon, Elodin.

Having come through a tortuous qualifying process where Zapata and co had gone out of their way to intimidate the raccoon but he had given everything and ended up in the finals totally on merit.  His band of panty throwing misfits, the Elodettes, went wild at the appearance of their favourite.  Zahara took it all in her stride as MezzaninE, West and Nipsey looked on.  Latom took her pride of place in the front row.

Chuck went through the rules to make sure everyone was up to speed and then got ready to go.

He threw the ball up in the air and despite Elodin trying to claw his way up Zahara’s legs to get there, she grabs the ball confidently.  She starts to dribble the ball but Elodin makes himself a pest and he puts her off enough and the balls bounces off her feet.

Elodin sprints/bounds/rolls over to the loose ball but struggles to get his tiny paws around the ball before Zahara got there.  She snatched the ball out of the poor raccoon’s paws.  The Elodettes scream for a foul but there was nothing like that here!

Zahara bounds forward and elegantly pops the layup in the basket.

Zahara 1

Elodin 0

The Elodettes waved their little mascots around and the real Elodin picked the ball up.  Zahara gave the Seattle contingent a little wave, content to be one up in this nervy affair.

Elodin tried to dribble the ball but despite having no real fingers and thumbs, he was all fingers and thumbs and struggled to control the ball.  Zahara, ever the opportunist, grabbed the ball which made little Elodin mad!  Once again, Elodin was all up in Zahara’s business and it made her panic.  She tried to get a quick jump shot away but being off balance she missed and it bounced off the rim.  Being able to outjump the raccoon, she grabbed the rebound but with Elodin hanging off her the layup was not as elegant as her first but equally as effective.

Zahara 2

Elodin 0

Elodin is in a pickle now!  Normally the phrase men versus boys would work but, in this case, it’s women versus small animals.  Chuck looked down at the downtrodden raccoon. 

Unfortunately young raccoon, this is the NBA.

Elodin looked forlorn.  This was not the Chicago way; drawing a gun, putting someone in the morgue.  That was the Chicago way.  Not going out with a little raccoony whimper.  The Elodettes screamed and shouted.  Partly to give Elodin belief but also to put Zahara off.

Maybe it was the extra va va voom from the Elodettes.  Maybe it was just Elodin’s time.  Zahara really didn’t seem to care.  She wasn’t for giving Elodin an inch and grabbed the ball as soon as it looked like Elodin had lost a little control.  This time, Elodin was going for the jugular…if Zahara was going to get past she was going to the morgue!  That…was the Chicago way!

The scrappiness of Elodin for the third round in a row unnerved Zahara and she struggled to get a grip of the ball.  It was no problem for Elodin though.  In the scramble, he poked it away with his nose but then just managed to get enough of a grip on the ball so when he jumped, he leapt with the ball and somehow managed to get the ball into the net.  Both players looked exhausted with all the effort they had put in.  Elodin though, was finally on the scoreboard!

Zahara 2

Elodin 1

Zahara rolled the ball to the edge of the arena, flicked it up with her foot and started dribbling.  Elodin scurried up close and distracted her again.  The ball was close to bouncing free but Zahara managed to keep it near her and away from Elodin’s scratchy paws.  As she tried to get ready to glide past Elodin he managed to get a little paw and almost steal it. 

Zahara picked it up again and once again Elodin was nipping at her legs.  This time, Zahara ignored his presence and dribbled away.  As Elodin came back at her she charged at him and knocked the poor little raccoon to the ground. 

As he lay there, she made the easiest layup at the second attempt.  Winner, winner, raccoon dinner.

Zahara 3

Elodin 1

MezzaninE leapt up and showed off the homemade crown he had made for Zahara.

Ladies, gentlemen and assorted dignitaries.  That concludes this portion of the National Finals.  We have your semi-finalists.

The pride of Seattle, Zahara will take on the flappity flippered humuhumunukunukuapua.

Then there are the two dudes from the great city of Philly; PureBloodedTexan takes on the might of JimmyTheWeed.

I will see you all later for the Final Four!