“Let’s play some three-on-three,” I said. I had to play some ball. It was the only thing that ever really relaxed me. Some of the other guys took another ball down to the other end of the court and started up a three-man game down there. After the wino had the sneakers on, he started over to where I was but stopped near the top of the key and fumbled around in his pocket until he came up with something he put to his mouth. I thought it was maybe chewing tobacco, but it was a whistle. I couldn’t believe it. Here was the wino in the middle of the floor blowing a whistle.

“Hey, why don’t you put the whistle away?” Paul said. I had to smile because the wino was taking this seriously, as if he was really going to coach somebody.

“Tell you what I’m going to do,” the wino said. “I’m going to play my man here some one-on-one. If he wins, I’ll walk out of here and won’t say another word. If I win, I’ll coach.”

“You got to be jiving,” I said. “I walked on my share of roaches for the day already.”

“You nervous, superstar?” the wino said.

“How would you like me to bust your jaw?” I said, putting my finger to his face.

“Do it with the ball,” the wino said, bouncing it to me.

“One-on-one, six baskets.”

Some of the guys started moving off the court. I still didn’t want to play against no wino, but there I was. I moved down the right side of the lane and just threw the ball up against the backboard. It went in.

“That’s one,” I said.

“That’s one.” The wino grinned.

I brought the ball down the left side of the lane and pulled up for a short jumper.

“That’s two.”

“Go ahead.”

I missed the next shot, and the wino got the ball from where it had bounced out of bounds. As he brought it in, I laid back, waiting for him to try to take a shot. He tried a jumper, and I slapped it away. I didn’t even try to pick it up. The wino got the ball again, came across the foul line, and made a little move with his shoulder like he was going to try that same jumper again. But as soon as I went up in the air, he went around me.

“That’s one,” he said.

A couple of the guys started making remarks. I shot them a look and laid back. The wino threw up a jumper from the top of the key. Two apiece.

I still laid back and he threw another jumper from the top of the key, and it was 3 to 2. He could shoot all right. Maybe he had played some ball once. I got on his case when he came down the side of the lane. He tried to get a step on me, but he couldn’t, and when he went up, I was right with him. I pinned the ball against the boards and scooped it down, then hit a turnaround jumper to tie the score, 3 to 3. But he was making it look like it was some kind of real game or something, so I went outside and started a spin on him. I spun outside until I got a half step on him and brought him inside. Then I let him recover from that and put another spin on the sucker on the inside, and then I jammed over him.