Basketball Sparkplug Read Free Page B

with the referee.
    “Hey! What’s the big idea?” one of the spectators shouted. “The kid tripped himself!”
    “Get the ref out of there!” another yelled. “He’s blind!”
    Kim stepped into his spot behind the white line and waited for the Rocket player to try his two free throws.
    The first sank without touching the rim. The second hit the backboard first, then bounded through.
    It wasn’t my fault, Kim told himself. I hope Coach Stickles knows that.

9
    T HE coach took Kim and Jimmie out in the second quarter. He didn’t say anything to Kim about the personal foul the referee
     had called on him. It bothered Kim. Maybe the coach thought he had tripped that boy.
    Anyway, those two points were the only ones the Rocket player had scored on Kim, But the Rockets were still ahead, 12 to 8.
     The Arrows could not seem to get going.
    A personal foul was called on Ron when he tried to stop a player from makinga drive-in shot. The Rocket player made the first free throw. He missed the second. Ron caught the ball and dribbled down-court
     to the halfway line. He passed to Jordan, who tried a set shot. The ball banked off the board. Bobbie Leonard caught it. He
     shot, but missed. A Rocket player got the ball and heaved it upcourt.
    Kim saw the coach shake his head and strike his fist against his knee. “We’re just not lucky today!” he said.
    The half ended. ROCKETS —17, ARROWS —8.
    During the ten-minute intermission Coach Stickles told his boys to stay close to their men when they were on the defensive;
     not to get rough; to get longshots only when they had to. Pass, pass, pass. Work the ball close to the basket, then shoot.
    “Never argue with the referee,” he added, “even when he is wrong, as he was when he called that personal on Kim. Sometimes
     he doesn’t see the play from a proper angle, but he has to call it as he sees it.”
    The words stuck with Kim. No matter if they did lose some of their games, Coach Stickles was a good, smart coach.
    Jimmie Burdette started in the second half. He made two baskets, both long shots, but the tall Rocket player with the long
     arms and legs was dumping them in like marbles into a tomato can.
    “It looks as if nobody can stop himbut you, Kim!” the coach said. “Get in there!”
     

     
    Kim got in there. He didn’t stop the tall boy altogether from making baskets. The boy sank two for four points. But that was
     all. And Kim had scored three points. All in all, it wasn’t bad for eight minutes of play—two in the third quarter, six in
     the last.
    The Arrows finished on the short end, 36 to 28.

10
    T HE line-up was in the paper the next day. Kim clipped it out as another treasure for his scrapbook.
    One sentence was in fine print about a Rocket player who had scored the most points. Another sentence told about Allan and
     Jimmie both scoring eight points for the Arrows. Kim read every word, hoping there might be something written about him. But
     there wasn’t.
    He looked at the clipping again.
 
fg
ft
tp
Tikula f
2
3
7
Burdette f
3
2
8
Vargo c
3
2
8
Leonard g
1
0
2
O’Connor g
1
1
3
Jordan f
0
0
0
 
----
10
----
8
----
28
    Well, at least he was playing as much as the others, even though he didn’t practice as often.
    If he could only practice more he’d make more baskets. Maybe Coach Stickles would put him in as forward.
    But he—he had to attend choir practice, and practice singing at home. That was what took his time. Suppose he did not sing.
     He could attend all the basketball practices then. He could develop agood eye for shots. You don’t have to be tall to be a good shot. Jimmie Burdette wasn’t tall, was he?
    Kim’s mother came into the room. She had on a dark blue dress with a black patent-leather belt around the waist, and the new
     blue shoes Daddy had bought her for Christmas.
    Kim thought of how much she loved to hear him sing. He remembered how she looked when she sat at the piano playing for him.
     She looked as happy as on her