Grady somehow got on his feet. He stood next to Jamal. The touch of his former player, now celebrity, on his skin as Jamal slid an arm around him was hot and cold at the same time. He smiled for photos, but he was not happy. He thanked Jamal, and though he meant it, he was also disappointed.
It was only as Grady was back in his office, Jamal and his entourage gone from the parking lot, and the janitors shuffling along the school’s hallways to clean up the mess the late-night gathering had made, that Grady understood why the praise he had been given made him feel so hollow.
He may have done a good job teaching Jamal on the court. But outside of it, where it truly counted, he had told him not to be himself. Through omission fifteen years earlier, and through outright lying now.
That, he k
