George Mckinnery woke up on Saturday morning feeling like crap. It was exactly a year from the day he failed to win state and be the cinderella story of Texas. He will never forget that day where he was almost a hero, but ended up being the loser.

It was the year of 2015. The day of the state championship. Saturday morning, March 21, the day the they face Marcus, from Flower Mound, Texas. Not to mention they’re the number two ranked team in the nation. Also, they have Marcus Smart. He is the 6’3 point guard who is ranked third on the ESPNU 100.

George's team are from a little town called Northville. Just a small place, right outside of Dallas, who has some basketball talent. By talent I mean George. He is the best player to ever walk through this town and everyone seems to know him. He is also a point guard standing at 6’4, an inch taller than Mr. Smart.

He only played the first three games till’ he pulled his groin, badly. he had to sit out 22 games and they only won one. That is why their record was 7-21 at the end of the season.

They were ranked last in their regionals out of eight teams. They call it a “cinderella story,” but in Northville, everyone knows that it was meant to be. They won the regional championship by 24 points, won sectionals by 13, and won super sectionals by 17. George was playing great. He was averaging over 40 points a game!

Two hours before the game and George is on the floor by himself. He was just shooting around getting ready for the biggest game of his life. All of a sudden, there walks in Marcus Smart. With his $700 headphones, Jordan jumpsuit, chains and jewelry all over him.

“What’s up lil boy?” Marcus says.
George just goes on shooting like nothing was said.
“Ight du, I feel ya” Marcus says.

Two hours later and the game was about to start. Everyone was hyped, yelling, cheering. Besides the small team from Northville. They were dead serious and knew this game was to be only won by being smart and hustling after everything.

“Alright, gametime boys.” the ref shouted.

“Okay guys, this is it. This is your last game in this high school jersey. Win it for everyone here, back home, at school, and yourselves. “Win for all.”

The tip off went to the Marcus Knights. Right after the tip Marcus threw an alley-oop from half court to their 6’9 center Hakeem Iverson. That’s how it went for the first quarter, and the Knights were beating Northville 31-16. Marcus had 18 points and four assists while George had 9 points. They were just simply not playing well.

The second quarter started and George played amazing. He scored the first 12 points in the quarter and kept going. The second half ended and Northville was still down 43-41. George had 33 points, and he had 21 in the second quarter.

George had to say something to the team.

“Guys, we need to do more on offense. (pause) I can;t be the only one to be able to score on a set defense. It’s getting pretty ridiculous. Well, that’s all I have to say.”

Then he walked out of the locker room and began to shoot. He’s done about everything right. Why would he have to stay in the locker room?
The second half started and Northville was on fire. George wasn’t even scoring the third quarter, he was dishing out assists. They were winning at the end of the third quarter 72-57.

The fourth quarter started and Northville seemed gassed. They were turning the ball over, missing shots left and right, not playing good defense. Next thing you know it, three min into the quarter and its tied 80-80. Momentum all towards Marcus. George called a timeout.
“Guys, what's going on?”, George said.

“We can;t handle em’!”, the team together stated.

“We got to give it all. It doesn't matter if were gassed, and we can’t handle their D or their athleticism. This is our last game for a long time! Don’t give up! Come on!

Both teams came out even, making about everything. One minute left and the score was 96-97 Northville. Marcus smart who already had an amazing 59 points called for a stall while dribbling up court. It was working and they wasted 50 seconds straight before George tipped a pass from Marcus and stole the ball!

He was so close to victory he could taste it! Seven seconds..six..five..and he went for the layup and possibly the win. He laid it up and it bounced around for what felt like an hour, and it finally bounced out. A player from Marcus got the rebound and chucked the ball so far George thought it was leaving the stadium. It went right to Mr. Smart and he dunked it right before the buzzer went off. Just like that Northville lost the state championship which they had won.

Marcus’s fans ran onto the floor and were just going nuts, while that little team from Northville, who had the biggest cinderella story in Texas history about to happen, sat there shocked and not moving. George on the other hand laid there paralyzed as it looked, crying, sobbing, angry. All the emotions you could think of. Just instead of that one thing he almost felt. Happiness.

Now, George laying on his bed, about to cry while thinking of what happened a year ago seeming it was just yesterday. He knew if he would've just dribbled out the clock he would go to his game today at Gonzaga feeling fine, but instead he would try and play the best game of his life.

Even though on that day of March 21st, 2015 he scored a new Texas high school record for points in a game of 78 points. He still felt like a loser and he lost for his town of 600 people. Now though, he tries to enjoy his gift of basketball to redeem himself. Because today, Gonzaga faces the University of Texas. The number two ranked team in the nation along with their flashy passer and one of the best players in the nation, Marcus Smart.