Slasher

Slasher comes from a rough home situation. For this reason, basketball means the world to him. It's his saving grace. That's why he plays with reckless abandon, driving aggressively to the basket every chance he gets. Yesterday I found out that he'll be donning our uniform after finishing as one of the city's leading scorers this past season.

I went to Slasher's high school a couple of months ago after finding out through a reliable source that his grades sucked. He had a 1.5 GPA. Despite that, Slasher held out hope that a couple of interested Division III coaches would find a way to get him in. He was wrong.

Before Slasher got the inevitable rejection letters from those colleges, I scheduled an appointment to meet with the rail-thin, scoring machine at his high school to get a read on his personality. I wanted to make my pitch to Slasher in case his financial aid offers were meager if he happened to get into the colleges that were recruiting him.

Slasher greeted me politely. I introduced myself and explained what he could get out of my program. I told Slasher that many players with lesser skills than what he was coming in with played for me and successfully transferred to a 4-year college. I reasoned that he would have even more options than those guys because he was actually being courted heavily by some programs as a high school senior. Oddly enough, Slasher began to sob as I was talking to him.

Slasher reluctantly offered information about himself after my pitch. I ended the meeting with him abruptly. He wasn't ready to deal with the reality of attending the local community college. Before leaving the building, I stopped in to chat with the former Head Coach of the boys' basketball team who had sent me a few players in the past.

Coach: Slasher might be coming to you. He'd be a real steal!
Me: I know. Do you think he can get into those schools?
Coach: I doubt it. One of them is trying really hard, but let's be real. He has a 1.5.
Me: Does he have any older siblings? He looks like an older guy in town. They even have the same last name.
Coach: Yes. He has a couple of older brothers. The one you're referring to is gang involved. He's a lost cause. Slasher is a good kid, though. You won't have any problems with him. Didn't you read about his family in the paper not too long ago?
Me: No. What happened?
Coach: Some family dispute or something. To make a long story short, during an argument at their apartment, the older brother grabbed a knife and slashed the father!