“Well, for one thing,” he said, looking around at Paul, “I’m wearing this button to advertise the fact that they aren’t getting justice now.”

“Why don’t you do for your own?” I asked him. “Or don’t you want to get involved with us?”

“What did you ever do for your own people?” Paul asked.

That got me mad because I felt I was being chumped off. I sat down in a chair and listened while Paul and Lenny talked about the book drive for the Native Americans. Then Paul started talking to Lenny about playing ball, and it was pretty clear that Paul had brought Lenny around to try out for the team. He looked too soft to be a ballplayer. But they were talking about how he played for some school, so I guess he must have had some kind of a game. I listened to their phony talk until I got tired of it. Paul was talking just like Lenny, like he had a mouthful of cornflakes he didn’t want to get any spit on.

“How long you going to be around, Paul?” I said. “I want to talk to you about something.”

“We’re waiting for my sister and her friend,” Lenny said. “Her friend just came to the city from Boston about two weeks ago. Paul and I flew up and helped her pack her things and shipped them, and then we all flew down together.”

I looked at Paul, and he looked away. He’d told me something about going to see his aunt a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t say anything about flying to Boston. I told him I’d check him out later and started to leave. Just as I was going out of the door these two chicks came in.

One of them had to be Lenny’s sister. She was thin and light-skinned like he was. The other one was light-skinned, too, almost white. It like to broke Paul’s face to introduce me, but he did. Lenny’s sister was named Joni, and the other chick was Leora.

The tournament, Cal explained, wasn’t so much to see who won or lost but was a showcase for scouts all over the country. They were supposed to be coming to New York to look at ballplayers who hadn’t been playing high school ball and who might have been overlooked because they weren’t on a good team.

“But the thing is this,” Cal said. “The first few games will be a round-robin practice round, and there won’t be many scouts around. Then, after the round-robin part is done, you get into the elimination part. That’s why they call it the Tournament of Champions. There’s all these divisions all over the city, and the champion of each division will get to play in the eliminations.

“Now check this out. Even though it’s supposed to be a showcase, the idea of winning or losing is important. Everybody looks at a winner and says that he’s good. And to be a winner in basketball, you have to have a team effort. If you didn’t come to play ball, then you might as well not be here at all. Is that clear?”