“Exciting, marriage, law school, and group therapy. This year is off to a great start. Danessa and I will be there with bells on. Won’t we Nessa?” Anika asked.
“I’ll be there, but I’m not wearing any fucking bells.”
When you cutoff a parent with no explanation, they will make every attempt to communicate with you. Right now, my father was on a live stream with a sports podcaster giving his account of the gambling debacle.
“I like to gamble for fun. I’ve been gambling since I was a teenager. I’ve always had a lucky hand.”
“Do you see how placing bets on your son’s professional games could be seen as problematic?”
“It’s not illegal. Shit, I bet on any and everything. I’ve placed bets on a coin toss.”
“Did you ever bet against Aldridge’s team?”
“Occasionally. Not because I don’t believe in my kid, but everyone has an off day.”
“Have you spoken to your son since the news broke?”
My father removed his baseball cap and looked directly into the camera. “He’s trying to ice me out. My bank account is frozen and when I try contacting his assistant, I get sent to voicemail. A son shouldn’t treat his father like that. I raised him and taught him everything he knows. That hook shot, he learned thatfrom me. Back in my day, children respected their parents. But Aldridge thinks he’s too good for his old man.”
“Has he told you that?”
“His silence is doing the speaking. I hope he knows that don’t no one love him like his blood. Fuck the fans and the groupies. At the end of the day family is all we’ve got.”
“If Aldridge is watching right now, what would you like to say to him?”
He scratched at his patchy beard. His eyes were sunken, and he looked thinner than I remembered him. “I’d tell him to stop acting all sensitive and give his old man a call. We can work this out.”
“Do you regret what you did?”
“Ain’t no use in regret. I can’t take shit back. It is what it is. I learned that at a young age. We make choices and you need to be a man and stand on that shit.”
“You heard it here first folks, Lamonte Mosley, father to basketball star Aldridge Mosley, breaks his silence on the gambling scandal. We reached out to Aldridge’s publicist and was referred back to the original statement released when the story was first developing. Tip-in Sports’ doors are always open if Aldridge is interested in sitting down with us.”
I tossed my phone into my gym bag and shut my locker door. Ramblers’ practice ended thirty minutes ago, but I decided to stay behind and get in a quick run on the treadmill. We’d secured a spot in the playoffs which was expected. Next up was the hard part, making it to the finals. To do that, I needed to be in peak physical condition. The Ramblers facility housed every piece of equipment imaginable. A vibration machine, cold plunge room, and a sauna.
The Ramblers gym was empty, another perk, with the exception of Colin Pratt who was using one of the weight machines. Could this day get any worse? Things between ushad not improved. We weren’t still constantly at one another’s throats, preferring to practice the golden rule, “If you don’t have anything nice to say then shut the fuck up.”
To my surprise Colin acknowledged my presence when I entered the weight room. “Seems like we had the same idea.”
“Kinda late for you. Shouldn’t you be at home with your family?”
“Haven’t you heard, newbie? Charmise kicked me out.”
“Damn.” Of course I’d heard the rumors about a baby on the way, but I didn’t know the rumors were true.
“Are you not going to tell me I’m getting what I deserve?”
“I’m not into kicking people while they’re down.”
“How about you? Your father’s a piece of shit. No disrespect.”
“You’re not telling me shit I don’t already know.” I pulled on my lifting gloves.
“You can do everything to rise above your circumstances, but your family will always remind you where you came from for better or worse.”
“Before I got drafted my agent at the time told me I needed to distance myself from my family. He called them a liability.”
“That’s kind of fucked up.”
