After Knight's big game, on the general board, in a thread about him..'
Big Aristotle wrote:In moments of peril, many men attempt to recapture their self from long ago when they return home after a long absence. They may visit their childhood home, marveling how the grass in the front yard is no longer as green as it had been. They may arrive at the storied delicatessen, hoping the taste of a cold cut harkens back to a past time, a past memory, although it rarely does. Or they may visit their elementary school gymnasium, listening to the sweet sound of a basketball smacking the sooty wood, as they pine for a simpler time. These pilgrimages seldom end in elation.
Brandon Knight. BK. "Mr. Whopper Jr." the employees at the local Burger King mutter under their breath as he orders the sandwich every Friday. Alone in his car, he unwraps the package, closing his eyes and thinking of his high school days in Florida, and takes a bite. "What happened to that guy ... that PHENOM?!" he bellows, looking at his reflection in the rear-view mirror, his mouth full of meat. "Will I ever find my place in the world?" he asks aloud.
A man who has achieved a fair amount of success and failure, he feels different now in his fifth year. Waking in a sweat one night in July, he had an epiphany. Unable to explain what came over him, he purchased a plane ticket for Fort Lauderdale and packed a small suitcase. "I won't need much," he said as he turned off the lights and locked his home. At the arrivals gate, he headed straight for a chauffeur. "Where are you going," the well-dressed man asked.
"The place where boys become MEN," Knight responded. "Pine Crest Gym."
It's been years, but he remarks how familiar it feels entering the empty gym again. He dribbles around the court, his body moving freely, like a man who has recently rid himself of the firm grip of a pair of shackles. Coming to a halt, he picks up his dribble and shoots, a smile appearing from ear to ear ...
"Will it be the usual today, Mr. Knight?" the Burger King employee asks him Friday evening.
"Yeah, just the Whopper Jr. with fries and ... wait," Knight pauses. He closes his eyes, quelling the tears before they fall from his eyes. "You know what," he says to the employee, his voice full of bliss, "I'll have a Whopper."
