THE STORY: The scene is a city playground, where an undersized teenager is shooting baskets. An enormously tall man of middle age stops to watch; then to give pointers to the boy; and finally to challenge him to a one-on-one competition. As they play, it is quickly evident that the older man was once a professional and, in fact, the boy is aware of who he is and of what happened to his once promising career. It also develops that the father of the boy was killed by the son of the older man during a robbery—and now the man has come to atone for his son’s crime. He wants to even the score, by letting the boy shoot him (as his father was shot), or, less drastically, by allowing the boy to win over him on the basketball court. But the boy rejects both alternatives—when he wins he wants to “win straight,” and all he asks for is a rematch in ten years, when he will be taller, stronger, and more skilled, and able to go “one-on-one” without any concessions given.
A provocative and revealing study of a young boy and an older man whose shared interest in basketball leads on to deeper, and often startling, revelations about other ways in which their lives have touched, for better or worse, without their intention.
Included in the collection
The Great Labor Day Classic and The Former One-on-One Basketball Champion.
