Kelly Oubre sat hunched, facing in towards his locker. In front of him were a multitude of bright blue plastic components which he was carefully assembling into a finished product. The hustle and bustle of the locker room behind him was ignored entirely. Nothing could distract him.
Nothing, that is, except an unexpected hand on his shoulder. Kelly was so engrossed in his project that the sudden touch caused him to jump in surprise. “Could you not do that?” he said in annoyance, not bothering to look around to see who had disturbed his work. “These parts are very delicate and expensive to replace.”
Sam Dekker leaned over Kelly’s shoulder to see what his teammate was working on. “You playing with Legos?”
Kelly laughed derisively. “Try using your brain, dude. Do these look like Legos to you?”
“Well, no, but-”
“These are 3D-printed plastic parts of my own ingenious design,” Kelly interrupted. “I spent a lot of money to get these made and I don’t need simpletons like you ruining my work, so if you could step back a little bit, that would be appreciated.”
Sam retreated as requested. “What’s it supposed to be?”
Kelly took a moment to assemble some of the subcomponents of the object into a cohesive whole, then turned around to show it to his teammate. “It’s an assault rifle.”
Sam flinched at the sight of the real-looking, though very blue-colored, weapon. “You might want to put that away, man,” he said nervously. “Do you not remember what happened to Gilbert Arenas?”
“I remember,” Kelly said calmly, not making any effort to conceal his self-designed, 3D-printed gun. “But it’s not like I’m using it on any of you guys, even though I could if I wanted to.” He paused while relishing in Sam’s scared expression. “No, this is for Klay Thompson when I go to his house to kick his ass.”
“You’re gonna shoot Klay Thompson with a gun?” Sam asked.
“No, but I’ll fire it at his bong so that it explodes and freaks Klay out,” Kelly explained. “Then I’ll finish the job that I started when I punched him in that game last season.” He looked through the scope of the rifle and pointed it at Sam to practice his aim, which caused Sam to flinch again. “Don’t worry, it’s not loaded.”
Sam appeared to be done with the conversation. “Whatever. I’ll let you do what you want, but I wouldn’t go around flaunting that thing. It’s probably illegal.”
“3D-printed plastic isn’t illegal,” Kelly replied smugly. He raised his voice as Sam wandered away. “But Klay’s not going to care about the legality of my weapon when it’s spraying bullets all over his house!”
Left alone again, Kelly turned back to his work. “I hate you Klay,” he whispered.