good bye to Lebron James from Akron

good bye to Lebron James from Akron

fiction
edward w pritchard

here's a repeat from earlier in the blog, yes the story was for Lebron James, known here as the basketball prodigy, and or Akron's favorite son. Thanks for the memories, It was great to watch you play.

Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Blues Singer Who Couldn't carry a Tune

Akron's favorite Son Again

fiction
edward w pritchard

He was the basketball prodigy who played with reckless abandon and in a few years time his body began to show and feel the pains and injuries of epic confrontations on a daily basis with younger players who challenged him for leader of the pack. He was still a candidate for the best of all time but he began to realize why it was not possible to keep getting better and better. His body was resisting his efforts to push the limits further and although he was not yet 30 he was now bone tired less than half way through the season.

One game he had a very serious calf injury to his left leg and for the first time in his entire career and he was to be sidelined for a few days.

He followed the orders of his doctors and trainer precisely, and he worked at rehabilitation exactly as he had previously played. He came in early, stayed late, [ see The Basketball Prodigy-by EWP] but his injury refused to heal and he missed many games. His attitude was admirable as he cheered on his team-mates and followed every game closely with enthusiasm from the bench, and the team played very well considering the loss of their best player. Despite a very successful team record, attendance dropped and TV sponsorship waned because he was the national draw and the team was in a small size media market. In time the team ownership despite his remarkable past successes and contributions began to snipe at him. One assistant coach was over heard to remark that the former prodigy wasn't applying himself totally to his rehabilitation which was dragging on and on.

Exactly half way through the season, there was a holiday break with no game and he went home to his Mother's for a home cooked meal and some nonjudgmental company. In the driveway of her home, on a lark, he was showing his nephew how to start a stalled moped, a very small moped, and the bike jumped into gear. His bad leg wouldn't support himself and he was unable to hold himself up and he worsened his injury by straining and twisting his left leg further. The diagnosis was a severe strain.

At the meeting a few days later with team management he found out that part of his contract was now owned by a local fortune 500 company about 50 miles South of the team headquarters. He had played loyally for the team the last eight years and the team who he thought he exclusively worked for now told him that to hedge their losses, they had transferred part of the risk of his very large salary, about a month ago to the local fortune 500 company. Following his recent injury, the fortune 500 company was contractually obligated to pay his salary for up to 36 months as long as he was disabled and unable to play at 100% as deemed by his team's management.

Two months passed and his injury refused to heal and the team management and the fortune 500 company were close to litigation over his injury and continuing absence from the game of professional basketball. His absence was not only hurting his team but viewership in the entire league was down because without him national viewership plunged. So both his team, and the corporation that must now pay his huge salary for up to three years were angry and frustrated because of him. His past success were of little compensation to either party because as one assistant coach had remarked you can't buy to days fruit with last years canceled checks.

Another meeting was planned with Team management, a slew of lawyers, and a few representative of the fortune 500 company. Professional basketball has a code and a player being hurt is considered how it goes sometimes, and that was the team's position, Not so said the large corporation, the team had misrepresented the prodigy's injuries and they threatened litigation. Cooler heads prevailed, and among the various lawyers a compromise was reached where the player would continue to draw his salary for 18 months from today, assuming he didn't recover. The team and the corporation's lawyer as usual in this type of employment agreement also stipulated that the Prodigy couldn't contact the team, its players, or the corporation, except in writing through counsel. To continue to draw his salary, the Prodigy would work for the large fortune 500 company at a position that was to classify the prodigy as becoming the world's highest paid security guard. Lastly, the Prodigy was not allowed to return to the team locker room, but his things must be sent to him with in 48 hours. It is also been mentioned in the media that his team mates secretly slipped a nice hallmark card to the prodigy but that can't be acknowledged because of anti- contact clause in the agreement.

The fortune 500 company owned a very large old manufacturing facility about 50 miles south of where the team played. They also owned and managed the City's , and it was a smaller City, municipal airport. They wanted the basketball prodigy while hurt, as a condition of drawing his multimillion dollar salary to work as a security officer at two towers, about five miles apart one at the airport and one at the plant. The tower at the plant was called the tower and the one at the airport was called he municipal watchtower. He was watching a large blimp hanger that was located on the airport property.

The company received over 200 million dollars in annual fees from the defense department of the Federal Government for allowing the blimp hanger to store some secret technology. As a condition of the annual fee, per the government contract, there must be visual surveillance of the hanger during daylight hours. At night electronic surveillance was used and it was more reliable than humans but it didn't work in daylight.

The basketball prodigy was given an extra large green uniform and began to work 6 days a week during daylight hours at the two towers. He punched a special clock at each facility as a record of the surveillance every other hour and the rest of the time he visually watched the hanger. He couldn't have a TV or read but he could listen to music. Every two hours he would drive about five miles between the two towers in his $250,000 car, punch a time clock, and then sit and watch the blimp hanger while listening to music. By the Prodigy working as the watchman at the two towers, the corporation was able to get a federal tax credit that covered all of his salary, and eliminated any losses to the corporations stock holders.

He had always been a fan of contemporary rap music which was the genre for upscale blacks less than 30, which is what he was although he was way upscale. He was being paid over seven thousand dollars an hour for his full time job as a security officer. He worked about 70 hours per week, but did not get overtime or extra holiday pay. In time, as he reflected on his team's new attitude toward himself, despite his extremely successful past record; the Prodigy had to fight really hard to keep his normal upbeat attitude toward his new situation. He realized that it would look very selfish to an outsider for a security guard making over $7,000 per hour to complain about his working conditions but the basketball Prodigy couldn't help but feel he had been abused, although he could not articulate why.

To help himself understand how and why he felt vaguely discontented and abused the basketball prodigy began to enjoy listening to some old blues tapes of Muddy Waters and several other classic songs of the 1930's and 1940's. A previous employee of the Corporation, who had worked in the tower previously had left the tapes after he retired and the Prodigy came to look forward to listening to the tapes each day. Sometimes when feeling wistful, the prodigy would sing along with the blue's songs but only when alone for in truth he never had learned how to carry a tune. In time, while listening to the old music and singing a little the prodigy gained a new appreciation of the sacrifices his fore bearers made and came to realize what it must have been like for them to blaze the trail that he was now able to follow.
Posted by edward pritchard at 8:08 AM
Labels: corporate conduct
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