OFFICIAL THOMAS BRYANT STATUS: Crying bitter tears of sadness as his stranglehold on the starting center position, which was so clearly his at the beginning of the season, is loosening as Anzejs Pasecniks pries it from his fingers. With every slow, steady bucket that Pasecniks scores, Bryant sees his own superior athleticism become less and less relevant. Every night he prays to an absent god for a setback of his injury.
OFFICIAL MORITZ WAGNER STATUS: Enshrouded by a deep depression from which there will be no escape. Seeing how Pasecniks has shown his worth so quickly in the league, Wagner compares it to his own slow development and wonders why he is such a feeble, worthless human being. With a claw hammer in his hand, he contemplates a violent self-inflicted reinjury of his ankle, just to avoid having to come back to a rotation where minutes will no longer be there for him.
OFFICIAL DAVIS BERTANS STATUS: Frantically conducting a grassroots campaign in Latvia to maintain his popularity in his homeland. However, he sees the tide of popularity turning towards the newcomer Pasecniks and knows deep in his heart that his efforts are futile. When the pendulum fully swings to other side and he is a forgotten man in his own country, Bertans will have no choice but to retire from the sport he loves, and when he’s sitting at the retirement press conference with microphones in front of him, the smile on his face will do little to mask the wrenching pain in his heart.
OFFICIAL IAN MAHINMI STATUS: While trying to flex on Pasecniks by reminding the rookie that he’s not the starter yet, his confidence wavers and is then shattered by Pasecniks’ cold stare of determination. Escaping to the relative safety of the locker room bathroom, he stares at his trembling face in the mirror and wonders if his contract is tradeable yet, for any fate would be better than the fate of having to share a locker room with cold-blooded Latvian superstar in the making Anzejs Pasecniks.