Klaus Korber was just 10 years old when his mother died. He didn't understand why the distemper was untreatable, or why the vaccine protected him and his father, but not her. He only knew how cold her paw was when she died in her hospital bed, and how long he and his father had cried.

Rolf Korber had learned basketball as a pup from the American soldiers stationed near his home. He loved the sport and played as often as he could, but when age and fatherhood pulled him from the court, he moved to a desk, becoming a coach. He was seen as a quirky dog in Germany, promoting a sport that had barely any popularity at the time. Maybe that's why his wife fell in love with him. And maybe that's why losing her was so hard.

Rolf found life unbearable after she was gone. Needing to leave the painful memories, he and young Klaus moved to the States. It was difficult at first for both of them. Rolf could only find work coaching regional and high school teams. Klaus struggled to learn English, facing bullies every day who made fun of his accent and called him terrible things. With no friends or family, Klaus tried desperately to impress his father, who tried just as desperately to bury his pain in unending focus on his work.

As the years passed, their world changed. Rolf got a better job, coaching at a university. Klaus joined his high school team and became their best athlete. They fed off each others rewards. Rolf made good money now, and could easily support his growing son. Klaus was his school's best student and finest athlete, giving his father much pride.

A few more years, the pair had become unstoppable. Rolf was offered an assistant coaching position with a team in the FBA. Just a year later the prestigious Huntsville Mayors asked him to be their head coach. Klaus received a full-ride scholarship to one of the best furry basketball colleges in the country. In time, Rolf would turn the Mayors back into the juggernaut they were during the Healey Davis years. Klaus would be such a sensational athlete, his college retired his number after his graduation, and the reporters called him second only to JTigerclaw as the best pick in the 2009 FBA Draft.

His father had negotiated a deal getting the #2 overall pick. The analysts said it was too perfect. A gifted athlete and a brilliant coach. Ready to conquer the league as father and son.

Rolf picked Jeff Random instead, trading him for a star veteran. Klaus was chosen third by the Typhoons, a weak club that had never made the playoffs.

Klaus didn't speak to his father the entire season. Not one word. Even as he became one of the finest rookies in league history, a contender for Rookie of the Year, as he brought the Typhoons into their first playoffs appearance and won their first two postseason games ever in Tallahassee, even then he said nothing to his father.

The Typhoons lost Game 6. It was the last game of the series. Klaus was late leaving the floor, held up by reporters. With the season over and the stadium dying down, the words he spoke had been empty and hollow. Scripted sound bytes given in media training, meaningless statements about the team's future.

But there was no script for when he found his father waiting for him in the tunnel.

"Klaus," he said. "Hast du einen Moment Zeit?"

"Do you have a moment?"

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A simply magnificent commission from the monumentally talented  blue-paper!