by Mike Lupica
Jayson was more determined than ever that basketball would be his ticket out, too.
30
JAYSON WASN’T ALL THAT EXCITED about going back to Percy; it brought back all the memories of the worst and dumbest day of his life, the way those memories had come flooding back the day Pete from Foot Locker had walked into the pizza place.
But he kept telling himself that once the game started at Percy, basketball would be the only thing on his mind. Somehow, Percy was the only team to have beaten Moreland East during the regular season. Twice. And the Bobcats had already lost once to Percy, by one point, at home, earlier in the season. Their only other loss of the season aside from their first game against Moreland East.
The Percy Hawks, in their cool black jerseys and pants, had overtaken the Mavericks to grab first place. So everybody in the gym knew how big this game was. But then, every game they would play the rest of the way was big, all of the teams bunched near the top trying to hold their positions, three teams for two spots in the title game. The Bobcats and Mavericks were both 9–2, and Percy was 10–1, which meant all three teams still had a good shot at making it to the league championship game.
But there was still a ways to go before that happened.
Whoever did end up winning the league championship game would earn a spot in the county tournament to play against the winners of three other leagues. And if you won that, you went to the big tournament at Cameron Indoor, a competition among the top eight middle-grade teams in the state.
Jayson noticed Bryan and Cameron staring at him a couple of minutes before they were supposed to take the court.
“What?” he said.
Cameron grinned. “Oh, nothing.”
“What are you two staring at?”
Bryan grinned now, and pointed at Jayson’s legs. When Jayson looked down, he saw them bouncing up and down.
Cameron said, “I was worried that we might be having some kind of earthquake, the way the floor was shaking. Then I realized it was just you.”
“Very funny,” Jayson said.
“My mom’s always talking about my nervous energy; that’s what she calls it,” Cameron said. “But there has to be a whole other word for what you’ve got going.”
“I’m not nervous,” Jayson said. “Just ready. Question is: are you?”
Cameron nodded. “We got this.”
Coach Rooney, who’d been out in the hall visiting with the Percy coach, opened the locker room door. “Okay, boys, let’s get this party started.”
The Percy Hawks weren’t particularly big. Cameron and Brandon were the tallest guys on the court. But the Hawks had a nice motion offense, passing the ball around constantly, not forcing any shots, finding open looks, so by the time the first quarter was over, Jayson was pretty sure everybody in their starting lineup had scored at least one basket.
Even though they didn’t have the height to match up with the Belmont big men, Percy was still ahead by ten points, and had outplayed the Bobcats on both ends of the court. The Bobcats had been struggling to keep up with Percy’s fast-paced play, so Jayson thought the score could have been worse than it was.
Cameron and Brandon hadn’t been able to capitalize on their mismatches, but the fact that the Bobcats were being beaten was hardly their fault. Jayson was being outplayed badly by Percy’s point guard, JeMarcus Betts, who’d been hurt the first time the two teams had played. And Percy had still won that game. Jayson had only heard about how good JeMarcus was. Today he was seeing it with his own eyes.
He was the same size as Jayson and just as quick. Maybe even quicker, though Jayson hated admitting that to himself. JeMarcus was staying in front of Jayson on defense, barely giving him an inch to work with, then blowing past him on offense, finding open lanes while Jayson was hitting nothing but dead ends. Jayson was getting lit up, no point denying it. JeMarcus was throwing him off his game totally, frustrating him all over the court.
“I can’t believe I’m letting this guy beat me!” Jayson said to Bryan in the middle of the second quarter, the Hawks up fourteen by then.
They were standing at midcourt while the Hawks’ small forward shot free throws, Jayson trying to keep his voice low even though he was spitting mad. He’d already been benched once for talking back.
“Still a lot of game to play,” Bryan said. “Time to get your head back in it.”
Jayson jerked his head in Bryan’s direction, started to say something. But then he stopped himself.
Because he knew Bryan was right. He was beating himself now just as much as JeMarcus was. Maybe more.
But nothing changed. The harder Jayson tried, the worse things seemed to get. He told himself to stop forcing passes and shots . . . and then kept forcing passes and shots. With about two minutes left in the half, Jayson tried to make a play on defense after JeMarcus flew by him again, swiping at the ball as JeMarcus went past him.
The whistle blew, the ref pointing at Jayson.
“All ball!” he yelled at the ref. “Are you blind?”
He knew he was in trouble right away, knew he should have kept his mouth shut. Knew it didn’t matter if it had really been a foul or not. But it was too late.
The ref glared at Jayson, slammed his right palm down on the extended fingers of his left hand, T’ing Jayson up.
Not only would JeMarcus shoot the one-and-one for the foul Jayson had just committed, but he’d also get two more free throws for the technical foul. And then the Hawks would get the ball back. It could turn into a six-point play for the Hawks, at a time when the Bobcats couldn’t afford to fall farther behind.
“And, son?” the ref said. “Not another word out of you the rest of the game, or you’re gone. Am I making myself clear?”
Jayson nodded.
“I didn’t quite catch that.”
“Yes, sir,” Jayson said. Then he shut his big mouth.
Coach Rooney already had Alex Ahmad up, waiting by the scorer’s table to enter the game. Coach motioned for Jayson to come sit next to him. But he didn’t say anything then, or for the rest of the half, which Jayson watched in silence, wondering what kind of look was on his coach’s face now but not daring to find out.
Coach didn’t call Jayson out in the locker room at half-time, or show him up in front of his teammates. He just stood calmly in the middle of the room and told them what he’d observed on the court, how they needed to change things up on offense by not crowding the lane and using back screens more often, and how they all had to do a better job of moving their feet on defense, fighting harder through screens, getting better position under the boards.
“We’re down only fourteen, and since I know what brilliant students of basketball you all are, I don’t have to tell you that we’re lucky it’s only fourteen,” Coach said. “But we can’t rely on luck in the second half; only skill is going to give us a shot. And you know what? We have a lot of talent on this team, so by the time the third quarter is over, this is going to be a game. And by the end, I believe it’s going to be a game we win.”
They all nodded.
“As far as I know, no coach has ever drawn up a fourteen-point play,” he said. “Let’s do this one possession at a time. You with me?”
Heads nodded all over the locker room.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Yes, Coach!” every voice shouted at once.
“That’s more like it.”
Jayson waited until the other players were out of the locker room, but he didn’t wait for Coach to approach him, knowing the right thing to do was to own up to his mistake.
“I’m sorry about yelling like that. Just got so frustrated out there.”
Coach sat down next to him on the bench. “What’s going on?”
“I stink, that’s what’s going on.”
“If you were more tightly wound,” Coach said, “I thi
nk I could fit you inside one of my golf balls.”
“We need this game!”
“Nah,” Coach said. “We want it real bad. But we don’t need it. The world won’t end if we lose this game.”
“I can’t believe you’re saying that,” Jayson said. “We’ve got a great chance to finish first in this league. Nobody thought at the beginning of the season, not even me, that we could finish on top. We have a shot to beat out the Hawks and Mavericks and get home court for the championship game.”
Jayson realized he was breathing hard.
“Did something happen to you that I should know about?” Coach said. “For once, it feels like there’s more than basketball at stake with you.”
For a split second, Jayson thought about telling him about the whole situation with Zoe and her mom, but then he remembered his promise to himself to keep it to himself. He had enough problems on the court today, no need to make more.
“No,” he said.
“Jayson, I know how much you’ve taken on. New school, new team, new family. But don’t make this all bigger than it is. Like I said, take it one play at a time. One game at a time.”
He put a hand on Jayson’s shoulder.
“You’re better than their point guard. You’re letting him get to you, which is what he wants. You need to play your game out there. They can’t beat us if you do that. Only way we lose is if you do the job for them and beat yourself.”
By the time they got back on the court, the big scoreboard was counting down the last minute of halftime. Coach Rooney had just enough time to tell the rest of the Bobcats that he was going with the same five that had started the game.
But you wouldn’t have known it was the same guys by watching them play—it was almost like Coach’s talk had transformed them, like a whole different group of players had walked out onto the court. Cameron and Brandon were making use of their height advantages now, posting up left and right, making their size difference count, getting one rebound after another. And Jayson? He’d cooled down some, though he was always at least a little heated when a game was going on. But now he was seeing the court more clearly. Hounding JeMarcus on defense, barely catching his breath before launching into another fast break, sometimes taking it all the way himself, other times dishing it to his teammates.
Halfway through the third quarter, the Bobcats had cut the Hawks’ lead almost in half, to 36–27. In the last few plays, Jayson had gotten a couple of quick assists, one to Rashard, one to Bryan. Trying to get everyone involved like the Hawks had done in the first half.
Next Bobcats’ possession, Jayson worked a sweet give-and-go with Brandon, breaking loose on his cut for an easy layup, beating JeMarcus.
36–29, Percy.
At the other end of the court, he had just one goal: stop JeMarcus from getting around him at all costs. Jayson didn’t mind letting him go from side to side—“east-west defense,” as Coach called it—but if he wanted to push himself and the ball toward the basket, Jayson was determined to make him work for every inch.
Mostly he was trying to follow Coach’s advice, taking it one play at a time. Just telling himself that if he could win his battle with the kid the Hawks called JBetts, maybe the Bobcats really could come all the way back.
Jayson wasn’t shutting JeMarcus down completely; the guy was too good for that. But at least Jayson had slowed him down and made him show a little frustration of his own.
Coach gave Jayson a two-minute rest to start the fourth quarter. Though he’d had trouble throughout the season with the ball in his hands, Alex Ahmad was strong defensively, and he did a good job on JeMarcus while out there, giving up just one basket when he got lost on a switch, but making up for it on the other end when he sank a crazy three-pointer off the glass as the shot clock expired.
Hawks up by six when Jayson came back in the game.
Cameron came over and said, “They’re the ones who are tight now. They’re playing like they’re afraid to lose.”
“Then let’s see if we can scare the life out of them the rest of the way.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Little by little, the Percy lead got smaller, the Bobcats looking like they’d saved their best basketball for the end of the game, when it counted the most.
Cameron and Jayson were doing what they’d done all season, tag-teaming Percy, blocking shots, stealing passes, give-and-gos for days. The Bobcats had put their weak first-half performance in the rearview, never looking back.
With thirty-two seconds left and the Hawks up by only two, Jayson used a crossover dribble to get past JeMarcus. JeMarcus saw it happening and reached out with a desperate swipe at the ball, getting Jayson’s arm instead. Jayson continued his motion through the foul and made the layup that tied the game. The last of Percy’s big lead was gone.
Jayson sank the free throw to give the Bobcats their first lead of the day.
The Percy coach called time-out. As the ’Cats came over to their bench, Jayson looked up into the stands to where the Lawtons were standing with the rest of the Belmont parents, Bryan’s parents on one side of them, Cameron’s on the other.
Mrs. Lawton made a motion like she was trying to raise the roof with both hands above her head. He looked at her, shaking his head sadly, and saw her laugh.
Coach said, “Boys, there’s still a lot of basketball to be played. Let’s get a stop right here. We’ve worked too hard and played too well to let these boys think this game is theirs if they want it back. They’ve been working their butts off trying to get past our defense, so keep up the pressure. And when we do get a stop, I want you all to be ready to bust it down the court. But don’t force anything. Play our game and we’ll be taking a win all the way back to Belmont.”
As Jayson started to leave the huddle, Coach put a hand on his arm.
“They’re going to clear out for Betts,” Coach Rooney said. “He’s still their best player. The ball has to be in his hands at the end.”
Jayson looked at his coach and said, “Can’t wait.”
Jayson knew Coach was right. The Hawks had to take their chances with JeMarcus. Give him a chance to win the game.
And that’s exactly what happened. The Hawks cleared out for JBetts. Point guard vs. point guard. JeMarcus didn’t have the size to back Jayson in for a post-up shot over the top. So he did what he did best, using his speed and ball skills, coming at Jayson head-on, making Jayson move his feet to try and stay in front. Jayson focused on the center of his man’s chest the way he’d always been taught, not watching JeMarcus’s eyes or the ball, not wanting to bite on a head fake or a ball fake.
Jayson had been covering this guy almost all game, studying all his moves. He prided himself on paying close attention to his opponents. Looking for any weaknesses he could exploit. One time he’d stopped to watch poker on ESPN and heard one of the announcers talking about how some players had “tells,” a way of unintentionally hinting to the other players at the table what they were going to do.
JBetts had one: When he wanted to drive right, he had a tendency to keep his eyes focused toward his left while taking one left-handed dribble, trying to get Jayson to lean that way just a little before going hard right.
It was the move he tried on Jayson now.
Jayson was ready for it.
He didn’t flinch, didn’t put himself in a position where he would have to react and maybe get whistled for a cheap foul. Instead, he just slid to the right to cut JeMarcus off, timing the motion perfectly as the Percy point guard stepped out in the same direction.
It startled JeMarcus just enough, blew up the move he was trying to pull off, and caused him to look up at Jayson for just an instant. All it takes sometimes. Jayson flicked out his hand and stole the ball mid-dribble. He had a step on JeMarcus and that was plenty. Jayson raced the length of the court on the fast break and kissed the ball off the glass fo
r a layup.
Bobcats by three with just eighteen seconds left.
One more stop—that was all they needed. They could even give up an easy two just to run time off the clock and take possession again.
But Jayson had a hunch the Hawks wouldn’t take the chance of giving the ’Cats the ball back. They would go for the tie, a three-pointer. And there was only one player on the Hawks who was a good enough shot to take it.
JeMarcus.
Just before the Hawks inbounded the ball, Jayson whispered something into Cameron’s ear.
The Bobcats let the Hawks inbound to JeMarcus and gave him the floor. Jayson waited for him just past midcourt, knees bent, on the balls of his feet. Ready to react, but letting the game come to him. Cameron stood at the top of the paint, loosely guarding the Percy center.
JeMarcus crossed midcourt. As soon as he did, Cameron left his man and raced to Jayson’s left. Jayson shifted to the right and planted his feet. JeMarcus was caught in the trap. Jayson wasn’t about to let him get past, and the double-team from Cameron took away every other option except for a blind pass, and Jayson knew that JeMarcus wasn’t about to give up the rock. Even with the Hawks’ center standing wide open beneath the basket, calling for the ball.
Frustrated, JeMarcus plowed right over Jayson, who hit the ground, knowing as he did so that the whistle he heard would be for a charging foul against JeMarcus. All Jayson needed to do was sink one foul shot and the game would be over.
Which he did.
After the clock ran out and the Bobcats celebrated, Coach approached Jayson. “That double-team. Your call?”
Jayson nodded. “Just taking it one play at a time” He smiled and said, “I’m very well coached that way.”
31
THERE WAS A PART OF him that kept expecting something else to go wrong, just because so many things had gone wrong for him in his life.
The memory of overhearing Zoe’s mom tell terrible lies about him was still fresh in his mind.
Yet he’d proven to himself that he could get through the worst life had to throw his way. Jayson knew already, at twelve, living one life when the school year started and another one now, how much fight he had in him. How he never stayed down for long.
