Paige Sterner RTV2102 Rice April 25, 2012 Against the Odds Bergen, Norway.

Most people have never heard of that town, or could place it on a map. This is home to Nikolas Skouen. Ever since he could walk, hes had a basketball in his hand. For the past 16 years hes spent more time shooting hoops than anything else. He is on the Norwegian National Team, and has been offered to play professionally in his home country. This does not appeal to him. Nikos real dream is to play in the United States for a division one college. Niko has been training constantly for the past two years preparing for his college debut. He spent the last year in Spain at an academy for basketball where he practiced eight hours a day and learned Spanish on the side. When Niko had asked questions about scouts and getting recruited the coaches dodged his questions and did their best to reassure him that he would be playing in the United States very soon. His time at the academy came to a close, Niko did manage to land a scholarship to Pratt Community College in Kansas. Because he went to the academy he must play at a community college for at least a year. At Pratt, he gets accustomed to life in America and works extremely hard to get an even better deal to play at a University. Night in and night out, he plays extremely hard and spends even more time at the gym even after the games are over. As his time goes on at Pratt, he realizes his coaches arent putting in the effort into finding him a better college to play for. They havent been sending out his highlight reels to schools and when recruiters call, their messages never get relayed

back to Niko. He finally receives a call directly from a recruiter, which confirms his suspicions. Enraged over his situation Nikolas storms into his coachs office and demands an explanation. Surprised at his anger, the coach is stunned for a moment unable to speak. Nikos speech is a mix of English and Norwegian, and is all together incomprehensible. Once he finally calms down his coach is forced to come clean and tell Niko that he was just being selfish and didnt want to see his talent leave the program. For the first time in his life, Niko finally stood up for himself and was assertive. He told the coach he would not allow this anymore and he better work his ass off to find him a division one college to play for. This surprised both Nikolas and his coach because this side of him had yet to be seen. As he leaves the office, Niko has found a new confidence in himself he never knew existed. With his newfound confidence, Nikos play gets even better on the court. The only problem is that now its late in the season and many colleges have moved onto other players since they never received a response for their interest. Still, he keeps playing and working on his game, which is continuously impressing both his teammates and coaches. With the season coming to a close, his hard work has finally paid off. He has offers from Brigham Young University, Pepperdine University, and a couple other smaller division one schools. BYU and Pepperdine are the two colleges pursuing him the hardest and he receives phone calls from both teams head coaches, letting him know they want him on their team next season. The time to make a decision is fast approaching, and making this decision has consumed his life. He tries talking to his parents, teammates, and even his girlfriend

back home but no ones advice seems to help him. He finally seeks out advice from a coach he met at a basketball camp he once attended. This man, Tom Sterner is a coach in the NBA. Their phone call only lasts a couple of minutes but once its ended Nikos decision has been made. In the fall he will transfer to Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. After finishing up the season at Pratt, Niko returns home to Norway to spend time with his family and girlfriend. After being apart for so long he spends as much time as possible with Karoline, his girlfriend of 4 years. The two of them have been together since high school and have made it through the long distance. Unfortunately summer has come to an end and its time for Niko to leave for California. His impending departure puts a strain on their relationship and when Niko leaves theyre not on the best of terms. Upon his arrival in Malibu, he is quickly thrown into two a days and barely has time to do anything but sleep, eat and play basketball. The time difference makes it hard to stay in touch with his loved ones back home. Still, he keeps on practicing and begins to form friendships with his teammates since they spend so much time together. Summer is over and its time to start the fall semester. Niko throws himself into his new lifestyle. The scenery, people, and atmosphere of the school is completely different than anything hes ever experienced. He is thankful for his teammates because they help him through the transition. Along the way he is also introduced to something hes never had to deal with before. Groupies. Because of his status as a basketball player Niko gets more attention from women on campus. He

even begins to get messages from girls around campus that wanted to go out with him. To Nikos surprise his girlfriend Karoline had been spying on his Facebook account and actually hacked into his account and saw the messages. It comes as no surprise that she was furious, and the distance between the two of them didnt help the situation. Luckily, Nko hadnt done anything with those other girls so he calmly explained to Karoline that she had nothing to worry about. She wasnt happy about it but she trusted her boyfriend. The season started in November and it was back to all basketball all the time. He allowed no distractions and focused on being the best he could be both on and off the court. He was the 6th man on the team and he excelled in that role. He came off the bench and scored when the team needed him to. NBA scouts had the opportunity to see him play at a couple of his games and told his coach that if he worked hard in the off season and kept getting better he could have a chance at being drafted. At the end if the season the coaches were very pleased with his play and Niko decided to stay in the states over the summer to work on his game. His parents came to visit for two weeks and later in the summer his girlfriend came and stayed for two weeks as well. They were happy to spend time together and she was so impressed with how much he had changed and gotten better. Time flew by, and yet again it was time for the start of another basketball season, only this time was different. It was his senior year and this was when all of the hard work and dedication mattered. After the graduation of a couple of seniors the previous year, Niko had worked his way into the starting line up playing shooting guard. This was his time to shine and he knew it. At the beginning of the

season he was unstoppable, he was Pepperdines leading scorer and no one could manage to guard him. Mid season, the Waves had an extremely big game against BYU, the tensions were high and late in the 2nd half Niko got wrapped up with another player and suddenly he felt something go terribly wrong with his knee. He immediately fell to the ground grabbing his right knee in pain. The medical team rushed to his side on the court to try and assess the damage. It was hard for the doctor to diagnose the injury right on the court without getting x rays and an MRI so they rushed Niko off of the court and to the hospital. The results were not good. Niko had torn his meniscus and would need arthroscopic surgery to repair it. His career as a collegiate athlete had come to an end. Coming to the realization that he would not be able to play for the remainder of the season Niko felt as if his life was over. After the surgery he went into a state of depression, he wasnt doing well in rehab and could barely look at a basketball knowing he wouldnt be able to play. His team was still in season but he rarely made it to games. Finally, about three weeks later he was confronted by one of the coaches. He told Niko that this didnt have to be the end of his basketball career and that there were plenty of players who came back from this injury to still play. Niko was still feeling sorry for himself knowing that the NBA draft was out of the question. His coach was persistent and let him know that the journey there might not be very easy but if he was dedicated and worked hard he could make his dreams come true despite the odds. After their talks a new spark had been lit in Niko. Now he was at every game supporting his teammates and looked forward to going to rehab to get better. He

made the decision to work as hard as he could to get better and play the game he loved once again. As Pepperdines season came to an end, he was finally ready to get back onto the court. The team had a good season despite not making it to the NCAA tournament and everyone was happy with the way they had played. Now it was time to get serious about getting to the NBA. As draft night approached Niko still couldnt help but hope that he would get drafted late in the second round. He watched and waited, but his name was never called. He stayed positive and knew that this didnt mean it was over, plenty of players went undrafted and still made it to the NBA but those cases were becoming rare. He spent almost all of his time in the gym getting shots up so he could get his rhythm back. When his shot came back so did he. He ended up being drafted into the International Basketball League where he excelled in his first season with the Los Angeles Lightning. After that he was given a chance with the Toronto Raptors on a 10-day contract. He was short on money and slept on his teammate Ed Daviss couch. For those 10 days he played his hardest and at the end of his try out he was rewarded with the ultimate prize; a full contract with the Toronto Raptors. His dream came true and he couldnt be happier. He could now afford to bring his girlfriend over from Norway so that the two could finally live together after years of being apart. Niko had made it, the tables had turned and for once it looked like the odds were in his favor.