CHAPTER 20 — "Voices of the League"
PAGE 1 – WIDE PANEL
Montage of different sports podcasts, highlight reels, radio stations, social media posts, and talk shows—everyone's buzzing about the upcoming B.Y.G Playoffs. Overlayed images of players from each city, slow motion dunks, blocks, and deep 3's.
COMMENTATOR (V.O.):
"This is it. The playoffs. Five cities. One crown. And the road runs through Rockaway."
---
PAGE 2 – "THE TALK" PODCAST
Two charismatic analysts sit in a studio surrounded by basketball posters and microphones.
HOST 1 (KENDRA):
"Look. Rockaway's got the best record. The MVP. The DPOY. And the Sixth Man. But Channel City? They're straight-up dogs. Physical. Angry. Hungry."
HOST 2 (DRE):
"I'm tellin' you—if anyone's taking them down, it ain't gonna be in a finesse battle. It's gonna be a war."
---
PAGE 3 – CUTAWAY TO ROCKAWAY CITY PRACTICE
The Rockaway team is in high-intensity training mode. Tabar drills mid-post footwork. Soulo runs through pick-and-roll sets. Mitch and Quan go at it in the paint.
COACH JAMES (off-panel):
"They think you're soft 'cause you got trophies? Good. Let 'em think that. Prove 'em wrong."
---
PAGE 4 – CUTAWAY TO CHANNEL CITY LOCKER ROOM
Damien "The Hammer" Cole and Carter "Brick" Simmons are pacing while the team hypes itself up.
DAMIEN:
"You saw the bracket. We got 5 Towns first. But this ain't about them. This about Rockaway. And they in the way."
CARTER:
"Bodies on the floor. Screens like bricks. Nobody walks through us."
---
PAGE 5 – SOCIAL MEDIA MONTAGE
Fast-paced panels of viral tweets, TikToks, Instagram reels.
A tweet from a former B.Y.G champ:
"Rockaway looks scary. But don't sleep on Inwood. Those snipers can change a game in seconds."
A viral post showing Leo posterizing a defender:
"Leo got that Sixth Man fire. That energy don't come off the bench—it explodes."
---
PAGE 6 – INWOOD TEAM MEETING
Scope stands up in front of his teammates—quiet, but every eye's on him.
SCOPE:
"Let 'em call us streaky. Let 'em call us cold. They won't say nothing when we shoot the lights out."
---
PAGE 7 – JAM CITY TRAINING GYM
Crusher is slamming down a dunk while D-Lock hypes him up.
D-LOCK:
"They all counting us out. Again. Let's send a reminder."
CRUSHER:
"Bet. Let's wake the league up."
---
PAGE 8 – 5 TOWNS HUDDLE
The team sits in a circle, quiet intensity in their eyes. The captain, Denzel "Lil Zo" Parker, leans forward.
LIL ZO:
"Yeah, we 2–6. But every L taught us something. Channel City ain't unbeatable. We got one shot. And we taking it."
---
PAGE 9 – ROCKAWAY LOCKER ROOM / FINAL PANEL
Everyone is silent. Coach James enters and simply pins a poster to the wall. It reads:
"FOUR MORE."
TABAR (quietly):
"One round at a time. One goal."
---
TEXT OVERLAY:
Next Up: Chapter 21 — "Grit Over Glory"
Channel City vs 5 Towns City begins. Let the playoffs start.