Slam Dunk Read Free Page B

exactly sure what he wanted to say next. After a few seconds, he went on.
    “They’re really all right,” he said. “Mick is a cool guy, and Len is sort of quiet but I think he’s pretty nice, too. And they
all
kept talking about how great a player you are. I mean, they really look up to you.”
    Julian wondered if Grady was exaggerating, trying to persuade Julian to be nicer to the new players. As he listened to Grady chatter on, he looked up at a framed picture on the wall — it was of him, with Barry on one side and Max on the other. The three of them were grinning like idiots at the camera and had their arms draped over one another’s shoulders. Julian knew he would miss them, on and off the court.
    He realized that Grady had stopped talking and was waiting for him to say something back. “Uh, well... I’m glad you had a good time,” he said.
    “Well, we really did,” said Grady. “And I think when you get to know them, you’ll like them, too. I mean, sure, it won’t be like last year, but we’re going to have a good team. I think we could make the play-offs.”
    Julian couldn’t help chuckling. “Yeah, huh? Well, it’s good you feel that way,” he said, not wanting to give his own opinion of the team. But Grady sensed what Julian was thinking.
    “Yeah,” said Grady after a moment, “I
do
feel that way. And I’m sorry you don’t.”
    Even though Grady wasn’t doing anything but speaking the truth, Julian was annoyed.
    “How do you know what I feel? Did you learn how to read minds or something?”
    “Oh, come on, Julian,” Grady said. “You don’t have to say a word. It’s obvious what you think about this team. You think we’re pretty bad. And it’s not fair, because —”
    “First of all,” Julian said, cutting Grady off, “you can’t say what I’m thinking unless I tell you. And second, I can think anything I want.”
    “You don’t know how good the Tornadoes are yet,” insisted Grady. “Nobody does. It’s too soon to know. And I think we’re going to be pretty tough — partly because you’re the center, and partly because we have some other guys who can play hard, too. But it doesn’t help the team if you treat those new guys the way you did today. You’re the —”
    “What did I do?” Julian demanded. “Did I insult them? I didn’t do anything!”
    “Right!” replied Grady. “You didn’t do
anything.
You hardly talked to them, you didn’t make them feel welcome, you didn’t have a nice word to say to them. That’s
real
helpful.”
    “It’s not my job to be a cheerleader,” Julian said. “You’re the main man,” Grady snapped. “Mick came up and wanted to talk, but what did you do? You acted like he wasn’t even there! You couldn’t be bothered to make him feel like part of the team, and don’t tell me that’s not part of your job, because it
is.
”
    Julian sat up straight on the edge of his bed. “Wrong.
My job
is to score and rebound and play defense. In
games.
And I’ll do that, don’t worry.”
    “You’re supposed to set an example,” said Grady. “You’re the guy everyone looks up to, and that means you can’t just score a lot of points and ignore us the rest of the time. Don’t you get it? You’re the team leader!”
    “Nobody asked me to be the team leader!” Julian suddenly realized that he was yelling and that everyone in the house could probably hear him, even with the door closed. He forced himself to speak more quietly.
    “Listen, I’ll be there for practice, and I’ll do what I can to see that the team doesn’t look bad. But if you think I’m going to clap my hands and talk about how good everyone’s playing when I know they’re not, well, too bad. Because that isn’t going to happen.”
    There was silence for a few seconds from Grady’s end. Finally, the other boy said, “Man, I don’t know what happened to you, but if that’s the way you want it, then all right.”
    “Nothing happened to me. And that’s