At the start of the basketball season, Coach Huffman expected the usual from his St. Louis Spiders—bickering stars and missed playoffs. The team's new owner, pharmaceutical tycoon Nikos Moriatis, planned to turn things around by giving new meaning to team chemistry.

But even if all the Spiders' players took a drug promoting player cooperation, the owner of their arch-rivals, the Austin Netrunners, would use every gadget he had to repeat as league champion....