Summer Ball

Jeff LeBow calls the boys to his office after the fight; he tells them Lamar complained about it. The boys receive punishment and a two-day suspension, while Lamar receives no punishment. While Danny tries to explain what really happened, Rasheed tells them how players like Lamar get away with bad behavior sometimes. He tells Danny, Zach and LeBow that during games, a “‘[g]uy hits you with a cheap shot, only the ref doesn’t see that one. All he sees is when you go back at him’” (171). The two boys leave the office and Zach heads to breakfast, leaving Danny with Rasheed. Rasheed says he wants to practice, instead of eating, and accepts Danny’s offer to accompany him.

After playing some games, the boys take a break and talk, just like Danny and his friends do between playing time. Rasheed opens up about his life, telling Danny “most people never got past the way he looked, the hair and the tats. That’s what they called him. Tats” (173). Rasheed says he must earn all As in school or his mother will not let him get tattoos. Danny also finds out Rasheed lost his father in a random shooting and his mother raises him on her own: “‘My mom says that’s the big cause of death where we live, being in the wrong place at the wrong time’” (174).