Shabazz Muhammad idly watched the snow fall outside his window. He had a lot of friends here in Minnesota, but sometimes he felt so alone, and never had the loneliness been more acute than it was now, on Christmas Day…
Figuring he could at least be doing something productive with his time, Shabazz gathered up the laundry he had be putting off, preparing to take it down to the apartment complex’s communal laundry facility, which would certainly be deserted on the holiday. When he opened his front door, however, he saw a package waiting for him. Setting down the laundry basket, he grabbed the nondescript cardboard box and brought it in.
As he searched the outside of the box for information on the sender, Shabazz tried to think of who might have sent him a Christmas present. He had already gotten shipments from his parents and his siblings and wasn’t really expecting much else.
Finally locating the shipping label, Shabazz saw that it was all in unfamiliar Russian characters. Smiling slightly to himself, he knew there was only one person in Russia who would have sent him this gift. He quickly ripped the tape off the top of the box and dug through the packing peanuts within until he located a smaller box with a USB thumb drive taped to the top. There was also a note tucked underneath the thumb drive; Shabazz grabbed it and read: “To my friend Shabazz, who I hope has a good Christmas. Soon we will hanging out! Plug in flash drive to computer for special Christmas message from friend. -Alexey”
Shabazz grabbed the smaller box and brought it over to his laptop. Sticking the drive in and double-clicking the single video file that was on it, Shabazz started to watch the video that his former teammate had sent him. It was Alexey Shved sitting in front of his webcam, wearing a santa hat. All behind him were Christmas lights of varying colors, flashing on and off.
“Hello friend Shabazz!” Alexey began, smiling and waving happily at the camera. “The snow is fallings here in Russia, making a perfect atmosphere for sending you a happy Christmas message! It is too bad I not in Minnesota so we can celebrating together, but with video it almost like we in same room, haha! Things are good here in Khimki, but I watching progress of Wolves from Russia and sad to see that friend Shabazz is not on court as much as should be. But in life, important thing are friend and health, and both Alexey and Shabazz are having blessings in both. I hope that friend Shabazz has merry Christmas and that new year providing new opportunity!”
There was a pause while Alexey reached for something off-camera. Eventually he held up a flash drive. “I send video on flash drive. After you watching video, record one of you and send it back to Russia for me. I loving to see smiley face of friend Shabazz. Well, that’s all for now! Hope enjoying gift I send! For sure soon we will hanging out together! Bye bye!” Alexey waved goodbye with one hand as he reached to turn off the camera with the other.
Shabazz was surprised to find that tears of happiness had formed in his eyes. Now he opened the smaller box to see what Alexey had sent him. He removed the tissue paper and pulled out what was obviously a Christmas tree ornament.
Inside the clear plastic ball were two handmade clay figurines. One was black with short hair, one was white with shaggy hair, but both were wearing the distinctive blue Timberwolves jersey. The two figures had their arms around each other and had identical cartoonish smiles on their faces. Across the bottom of the sphere were written words in golden sparkly text: “Alexey + Shabazz having friendship forever.”
Shabazz carefully took the ornament over his tree and placed it in the most prominent spot in the front. “Forever,” he whispered.