LITMIR.BIZ

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what he means. Reynolds has potential, but he’s a disaster so far. Then there’s a sophomore who moved in at the end of last school year, J.J. Fuller. But he’s hard to read. Nice stroke. Some bullish bulk to him. Except he has no burst as far as I can tell. That’s about it.

      When we finally start running sets, that problem becomes apparent. Fuller gets first crack, but it seems like the only move he’s got is to lower his head and go straight to the rim. Once in a while it works out, but more often he gets pinned deep with nowhere to go. He looks mad all the time too. The more he struggles to make plays, the deeper his brow pinches down. If Reynolds looks like a fourth-grader, Fuller looks like he’s forty—a stocky build with a big, blockish head. He’s darker-skinned too—it all makes him look like some severe old man who’s going to yell at you for playing your music too loud.

      Meanwhile, Reynolds is running at the two spot with the second team—a tough draw. That means he’s trying to check Devin, who just turns him inside-out. One possession Devin drives past Reynolds to set up an easy dunk for Moose. Next time Reynolds gets pinned in the lane, and Devin calmly buries a three. Next time Reynolds darts to the passing lane, only for me to drop a back-door to Devin who lays one in.

      On that one, Reynolds doesn’t even try to recover. He just stands there, his heels on the three-point stripe and watches his man score. “You better work harder than that!” Bolden yells. “Your man’s scoring, and you’re out there feeling sorry for yourself. You can’t let one mistake turn into two!”

      And then it happens. I see Reynolds break, right there. This horrible pained look crosses his face, and he hangs his head again. He juts out his lower lip, and his eyes get wide and glassy. It looks like he’s going to cry. I’d be embarrassed for him if he did that. Instead, he just turns and starts for the locker room. He peels his jersey off and lets it hit the floor behind him.

      We all look around, like someone ought to stop him. Bolden’s not one to let off the gas. He doesn’t even look at Reynolds. Just starts the next drill. Ruthless.

      But that’s the way it has to be. Practice clips along, drill to drill. Nobody so much as mentions Josh Reynolds. His exit does cool our fire a little bit, like it’s cast a curse over us. It just seems wrong that less than an hour into the season, we’re already down a man.

      Coach Murphy feeds me as I rotate around the arc. This will be our after-practice ritual same as last year, only this time Coach Bolden is down on the other end feeding Moose in the post. We’re determined to make this year the one.

      I rattle one home from the wing, but my shot from the baseline skims off the back rim.

      “One more,” I shout to Murphy. I keep my hands out, waiting for the pass. He zips it to me, but runs at me with his hand up. I shoot fake and go. One dribble to the short baseline for a pull-up. Long again.

      I rebound it and lay it in, then grab the ball again and back up. I knock in a short J just to end on a make. Still, those two misses leave a sour taste.

      “You’ll get it,” Murphy says. He knows it’s that pull-up jumper that’s the real key. Nobody’s going to confuse my shot with Stephen Curry’s, but people will have to respect it this year. And if I can get all the way into the paint, I know I can finish near the rim. It’s the intermediate game that I need to work on, and it’s coming as slowly as the long-range jumper did last year. I get that down though, and nobody will check me. Only thing left, I guess, would be to work on hitting jumpers coming off of screens, but Bolden wants me working on one thing at a time.

      “I know,” I say. After last year, I trust Bolden and Murphy a little more, so even if I’m frustrated at missing the pull-up, I’m not letting it get to me. I catch my breath in the lane. I see sweat stream off my face and fall on the ball, streaking the leather. It’s been a good first day. Except for Reynolds. Something about watching him wilt was hard to handle.

      “You okay?” Murphy asks.

      “Yeah,” I say. I don’t want to gripe on the first day. But then I figure it’s just Murphy. You can tell him whatever you want, and he won’t go telling Bolden if he doesn’t need to. So I jersey some sweat off my face and say, “Bolden got after Reynolds pretty hard.”

      Murphy glances down to the other end of the court, where Bolden’s still working with Moose. We keep our voices low. “What are you trying to say?”

      “Just—” I falter. It feels wrong criticizing Bolden right here in the gym. It’s like swearing in church or something. “I don’t know. I didn’t think he needed to run him off. He could have told Reynolds to stop before he just gave in.”

      Murphy narrows his eyes at me. It’s not an angry expression, just him trying to figure out how to respond. “Derrick, I didn’t want to see the kid quit either, but what’s Coach supposed to do? He can’t go beg a freshman to stay just because the kid’s feelings got hurt. He does that and how is he supposed to come down on Moose if he has to sometime? Or on Devin or you?”

      I nod. He’s right. I figure that’s that, so I tell him I’ll catch him tomorrow, and I head for the showers.

      “Derrick!” Murphy calls. I turn and see that he’s got this half-smile on his face and he’s shaking his head at me. “You’re not hearing me. Someone should have stopped Reynolds, but that was your job.” I stare back at him. “If you want to take charge, then you need to be a leader. You should have been talking Reynolds back onto the court before he got halfway to the locker room.”

      “All right,” I say, but I don’t buy it. It’s not until later—after my walk home and a quick text to Wes to tell him what went down and a short conversation with Jasmine who doesn’t want to hear a word about it and after I eat dinner and hear my dad and Jayson get into some nonsense, when I crack the books and stare down at the page—that I finally have to admit it—Murphy’s right. That one was on me.

      3.

      The days are getting colder so Uncle Kid and I are both in sweatshirts when I meet him at the court. Bolden had us practice early—six a.m.—so the women’s team could use the court right after school. At least that’s what he says. I think he really just wants to push us harder. Anyway, it’s an afternoon off so I hit the blacktop with Uncle Kid before dinner.

      “Who’s Bolden gonna put at that three spot this year?” Kid asks. He’s corralled a rebound from one of my shots and is spinning in lay ups on alternating sides of the rim. Even at his age and even without taking great care of himself, he’s an agile guy. Give him a month to get in shape, and he could still crack any starting five in this state.

      “That’s the question,” I say. “It’s trouble no matter what.”

      “Shoot,” Kid says. “Ain’t gonna matter.” He zips a behind-the-back pass my way. I loft up a deep fade that falls short. Not exactly a game shot, but this is time to just kick it with Kid. “You got the core. You, Devin, and Moose. Bolden’s half as smart as he thinks he is, you’ll rip right through Regionals.”

      I almost say, At least Sectionals, but I stop myself. I know that’s messed up thinking. The only reason I’d say that is because I know Vasco and Hamilton Academy are lurking in Regionals. But if I don’t at least believe we can take them down, then there’s no way we’ll actually do it. “I feel you,” I say, trying to act confident. When Kid rifles me another pass, I grab it and rip it to the rim, just to shake off that touch of doubt.

      Nobody else is at the park this time of day. It’s near dusk in the second week of November so you’re only on a court if you’re a hoops junkie. When the wind kicks up, you can feel the full bitterness of winter lurking in it. If you don’t keep moving, it’s like you can feel that temperature dip down a little bit more by the minute. The trees just have a few dirt-brown leaves clinging to them so you can see across Fall Creek toward downtown. For most people, these are depressing days. Just a hard stretch until the holidays. But for me, all of this means live action—real basketball—is just over a week away.

      “All right, Derrick,” Kid says. “Level

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