I just looked at him and he looked at me. Then he reached over and poured himself another drink. I didn’t say anything else. I went on upstairs and looked under the bed and pulled out the box. There were two bottles of Scotch left. When I came down again, I asked him how much he had lent my mama.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, “you’ll pay it back.”

“Hey, look, can I ask you a question?”

“Free country.”

“Do you practice being stupid, or is it just natural?”

“Man, that’s a real funny joke,” he said, leaning back in the chair. “The first time I catch me a free minute I going to sit down and have myself a real good laugh.”

I got to the gym, and there’s a bunch of guys hanging around. Paul and Ox were there, too, watching some guys playing five-two for quarters. When I get there, the guy who runs the gym, a little West Indian cat, tells Paul to get everybody together. Most of the guys I had been playing with around Harlem most of my life, and I knew they could hoop.

“Okay, you guys are in the tournament,” Nesbitt, the West Indian cat, was saying. “Now the tournament consists of two stages. The first stage is to get rid of the scrubs. There are sixty-four teams in the tournament right now.”

“Sixty-four teams!” Ox said. Ox is one of these big suckers who looks like Alley Oop. He’s about six seven and weighs about two twenty. His game isn’t that tough unless he gets mad. Then he gets stronger than skunk pee and can’t nobody do anything with him.

“There’s sixty-four teams right now,” Nesbitt said, “but the way the tournament’s set up the weakest teams have to play the strongest first. That way we eliminate the really weak teams up front, but a lot of guys get a chance to play. Now the whole point to the tournament is that there will be college scouts at the games. They’re going to be checking out not only how you play but also how you carry yourself.”

As Nesbitt went on talking, I noticed somebody come up behind the guys. It was the wino from the park. The first time I saw him face to face in the park I thought I had seen him someplace before, but I couldn’t figure where. Now I knew. Sometimes he hung around the gym, watching the guys play ball. Probably to keep warm, I figured, or maybe he was a freak.

“Okay, now Mr. Jones will see to it that you guys get over to the playground tomorrow to play your first game. You’ll be playing a team from Staten Island. A guy I know saw them play and didn’t think much of them. I want you guys to remember that this is a chance for those of you who didn’t play high school ball. Most of the coaches that come will come for the last game or two, which will be held in the Felt Forum if they can get it.”