“And then they took me to jail. And I sat in that jail cell, and I had a good laugh. Because that’s all I am, is one big dumb JOKE! They beat me in Chicago, and they beat me here. I thought I was Calvin F. Jones. No, man, that ain’t who I am. I’m the nigger who sold his game. That’s who I am.”

“Did you tell the police your side of the story?” I asked. “You tell them your side?”

“Yeah, I told them,” Cal said. “One of them said to me, what did he say? Oh, yeah, he said, ‘Didn’t you used to be Spider Jones?’ Ain’t that something. ‘Didn’t you used to be Spider Jones?’ ”

“We lost yesterday,” I said.

“I know.”

“You know?” Aggie looked at me.

“The word gets around,” Cal said. “Even in the joint. Brothers sitting in there feeling on their dreams like they masturbating. Thinking that one day they’re going to come out and sing and dance or play some kind of ball and get on up in the world. What was the name of that book? Yeah, From Ghetto to Glory. We like to think that we are the ballplayers. That’s what we like to think. Truth is, we’re more like the ball, giving up our hides to make the game.”

“Later for your noise, Cal,” I said.

“You don’t want to hear this, do you?” Cal looked up at me.

“Why you cutting him up so?” Aggie said. “He’s out here busting his butt, trying to get you out of jail, and all you got to do is to cut him up like that?”

“I ain’t doing nothing wrong, honey,” Cal said. “I just got there with the first knife.”

“You ain’t coaching the team no more?” I asked.

“It’s like this, man—”

“I don’t want to hear nothing but are you coaching the team!” I said. “You done sold your game, don’t be giving mine away!”

“No,” he said.

I went on out the door. Aggie came after me and was talking about how I had to understand. I didn’t want to hear it, just like he said.

We played our next two games on the same day and without a coach. They were scrub teams that we should have walked on, but we just managed to get by them. I played all right the first game. In the second game, when they found out they were going to lose, they started a lot of crap under the boards. One of their dudes was beating on me every time I got the ball, and I gave him an elbow in the face to keep him off me. When I did that, he grabbed me around the neck and threw me down, and we had a light scuffle on the floor. There were only a few seconds to go, and the referee told both of us to leave the floor. I didn’t think nothing of it.