Archive for June, 2010
Lost and Found: A Tie Breaker
“Holy. Shit.” thought Coach Dixon.
It was not the first time that afternoon that he had thought he might have a heart attack and drop dead on the gleaming parquet.
His boys had played their hearts out, and he knew that if they’d lost this one that that would be the end of their will to play. He didn’t, however, have the heart to tell them to set their sites low.
They hadn’t won a game all season… that’s 14 games without a win. That’s gonna shake a young man’s confidence. To the core.
But there it was, 14 point for both teams and Lil’ Duane, legs set wide, stooped at the free throw line, with a bucket percentage of 24%. It seemed that time was moving an order of magnitude more slowly than it should have, and Coach Dixon wasn’t the only one holding his breath.
A tilt of the head, a flick of the wrist, and the sphere was loose.
And as the ball followed its inevitable gravity-defined arc, curving, spinning, and occupying its rightful place in three dimensional space, the crowd frenzied itself to stillness.
In that instant, when leather met nylon, Duane Shahome forever became known as Lil’ Money to the boys that made up The Navy Yard Boys Basketball team.
Go Lil’ Money, go!
With no thanks to the ever growing wave of digital camera use, this was found nestled in a clump of leaves between Atlantic and Fulton Streets in Brooklyn – not far from Ratner’s impending basketball themed Palace of Sport.
