Joshua Nourse was activated from the long-term injured reserve last night, making his official return to the National Singles Association after an almost nine-year absence from the league. No push-over for competition in his first game back, going one-on-one against an attractive, young Tennessee blonde. Clips of Nourse in practice surfaced on various social media websites, but he had not been active in singles competition since about 2014, depending on who you ask. The [REDACTED]-year-old veteran had never managed to make a huge splash in the NSA, and considering his age, fans were wondering why the hell he was returning to the league. It was in no way, shape, or form having the feeling of a Klay Thompson return, but strange news is still news. He played well in his return. The stat line is impressive enough: 38 points, 10 rebounds, and 0 assists. However, in the end, an inexplicable shot cost him the game on the final possession.
Nourse knew that some tricks of the trade were still applicable to the game today, but he also started to wonder if there was anything he could do to change the game. In a recent interview entitled “Lucifer Got the Yams,” Nourse had this to say: “Who does it say more about if we were to tell the truth about ourselves, emulate God to the best of our ability, never make false promises, and the man or woman you were speaking to “rejects” you and is won by way of deception?” His absence from the league was long enough that lessons he had learned long ago might have been forgotten.
Not an exciting prospect out of middle school, Nourse struggled to find his way, taking many L’s in his early tenure in the league, as many male prospects do. It wasn’t until Nourse came under the tutelage of coach and mentor David DeAngelo that we saw a glimmer of hope from him. DeAngelo’s Attraction Isn’t a Choice was the genesis of whatever early success he had. Male prospects, like Nourse, had begun to figure out that the game they were playing is no logical one. Being sensitive to feelings, being attentive and nice, buying gifts, and other sorts of chivalrous behavior did not seem to work. At all. They understood they had to change their game and adapt to the league – but how? David DeAngelo provided Nourse with some tools to improve his performance. The cornerstone of Attraction Isn’t a Choice is a simple one. Look at the evidence. For us common people, it is not the ones that look like Channing Tatum that get the girls, although they do get their fair share, more so by luck of the draw than anything else, but it is the ones that defy logic and go against the grain. How many times have we heard someone utter, “How the hell did he get her?” We saw remnants of the knowledge Nourse obtained from DeAngelo in his return, but on the final possession, we also saw that the drawing board needed to be paid a visit.
Within the last year, Nourse has developed a fascination with the way men and women interacted with each other in the days of bygone eras. He had been reading romance novels, listening to love songs, and writing poetry. A whole lot of “simp” shit, really, but intriguing enough to him. As a Memphis-based friend of his would tell him, “Josh, you ain’t been outside in a minute, boy!” He hasn’t – he “been in the crib too long.” These sorts of ideas, such as sweet-talk, letters, poems, and others, are completely counterproductive to the ideas that he found success with. Coming into the game, he was well aware that they were, but he didn’t have any intentions of doing away with them. In a pre-game interview with Nachel Richols, he said, “Yeah, you know, I don’t want to abandon anything that I’ve learned. I just don’t like the way the game is played today. I’m not with the disrespect it takes in the modern game. A lot of women brought me out of that mindset in the past couple of years, and I’m just gonna do me. If it don’t work, it don’t work.”
Having been out of the league for so long, Nourse came into the game facing a 20-point deficit against the young, attractive blonde. However, from the jump, Nourse quickly closed the gap by implementing what he learned in his late teens to early twenties. She found it difficult to guard the returning Nourse, and the lead was cut to 10 by halftime. Finally, at the start of the second half, the blonde baddie pushed back. She wasn’t texting Nourse and became elusive, stretching the lead back to 15. Nourse remembered how to handle this hard-to-get behavior. He pretended not to care and brought the lead back down to 10. A slight touch here and a slight touch there, which the blonde did not defend at all, and we had an 8-point game by the start of the fourth quarter. Hangman with a provocative answer, vintage Nourse, was a crucial three. Bink-bink, step-back, SPLIKAK! Five-point game. Eventually, she started to reveal information that one would never reveal to just anybody. Chemistry and rapport. Somewhere out there, you could hear Mike Breen yell, “BANGGG! It’s a two-point game!” The camera caught Nourse hype before the commercial break after a timeout. “She can’t guard me! Somebody better tell that girl to switch it! She got a problem out here!”
Then, it happened. Shot-clock turned off, down two. A three wins the game; two sends it to overtime. After all, she would be here at the same place next week. Overtime would be a chance to live another day. With the game in the balance, for whatever reason, Nourse decided to try and implement the changes he so desperately wanted to see in the game. Tween, tween, curl, cross, tween! Left her. All that was left to do was knock down the triple. But you know what he said? “You have beautiful ocean blue eyes, lady.” The attractive blonde looked at him in disgust from the distance. Nourse saw the look before the shot. She actually yelled out the word, “GAG!” Air-ball. Game over. A valiant effort that was all-for-not because he wanted the game to be played his way.
Boris Durke spoke to him after the game. “Obviously, hurts to lose in a fashion like that. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking out there. But, played well enough to win, you know? Just gotta pack it up and get ready for the next game,” said a dejected yet hopeful Nourse.
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