Jack couldn’t wait to tell Ox his idea. He ran out of school all the way to Ox’s garage. He had stewed about this all afternoon and it wasn’t until he was in industrial arts that the idea hit him. He knew it would be risky, but he thought it was worth a try. By the time he got to Ox’s garage Jack was breathing hard. Ox was sitting on his couch with the door open flipping his basketball in the air and catching it on the back of his hand.
“Hey Ox!”
“What’s new country boy?”
Ox let out a big smile and passed the basketball to Jack. Jack dropped his backpack where he stood and drained a shot through the hoop.
“I got an idea about getting you to play hoops with me on the school team.”
“What you talkin’ bout? Ain’t no teacher putting ideas to your head is they?”
“Come on Ox…your my hoops pal. I just wanna play on the same team…I thought if I could help you with some of your jobs that you’d have more time for school…that’s all.”
Ox’s smile faded quickly. He stopped dribbling the ball and looked like he was thinking pretty hard.
“You still gonna try to make Mr. Crazy’s team?”
“Well yeah…that’s why I want you to play and go back to school.”
“Okay country boy…all’s you need to know is Ox don’t play for Mr. Crazy.”
“Well what if we made a deal?”
“I only make deals where I get me some money.”
“But I’d be taking on some of your jobs so you could still make money and go to school…it’s better if you play…you could go on to college or something…you’re really good Ox.”
“Dat what Mr. Crazy say til I miss a shot to lose the championship…he go crazy on me like it be my fault we lose…dem boys from dat other school is coached good…Mr. Crazy just want his players to run and play defense…I ain’t playing for him no mo’!”
“If I try out for the team by myself the other kids are gonna clobber me no matter how hard I run or how good I shoot…then my mom will want me to try out for her boss’s team.”
“Who your momma’s boss?”
“Some guy named Greg…I forgot his last name…he said he played at Wichita State.”
“Dat be the coach of dem white boys who beat Davis in the championship last year…he don’t like dat Davis is allowed in dat hoity toity white boy league…so country boy might be playin’ for da champs?”
“I ain’t playing for that fool. His son is crazy and I want to play for Mr. Roderick.”
“I’s telling you dat all coaches is da same…don’t trust no coaches country boy…not even Mr. Crazy…he think he be cool, but he crazy.”
“Fine Ox. Do you wanna shoot?”
“Is cool.”
Ox shot the ball at the hoop and missed. Jack ran up and grabbed the ball. He tried a layup shot, but hit the rim. Ox laughed.
“You can shoot from behind da arc, but can’t lay it in?”
“You can’t shoot a three pointer…why don’t you teach me how to do a layup and I’ll show you how to shoot three’s.”
Ox started showing Jack all the different ways to shoot a layup. He showed him a standard layup, a finger roll layup, a reverse layup, and how to change hands during a layup. Jack had never been taught how to make shots in close proximity to the hoop. After several tries Jack finally made his first layup. It wasn’t pretty, but he made it and Ox made him keep practicing. He started showing him some of the drills that Mr. Roderick liked to run in practices and would surely be part of the tryout process. By the time Ox had run through all the different layup drills and Jack practiced each of them over and over again it was time for Jack to leave.
“Thanks for helping me out Ox…this is going to really help me in a couple weeks.”
“You still sure you want to play for Mr. Crazy?”
“I’m sure Ox. I don’t know what he told you, but I bet it was to help you become a better ball player.”
“You come back on Saturday and we run some more drills.”