Garrett Temple lay in his bed, fuming with anger as he stared at his iPhone screen. He and performed a search on YouTube for his name, expecting to see perhaps some clips of his college days or his few NBA dunks. What he found was ostensibly better, but also much worse.
“Career high 18 points? Career high 21 points? That was just yesterday! It’s like he thinks that I won’t ever score more than that!” he exclaimed.
There was a woman in bed next to him. Garrett didn’t remember her name, and she didn’t seem moved by his outrage. “He’s just pointing out a fact at the time of the creation of the video, bae,” she said sleepily. “Don’t take it too seriously.”
“I can’t believe this!” Garrett continued, naked body quivering with rage under the sheets. “I’ll show them…I’ll show them all…”
“Of course you will, bae,” said the unknown woman.
“I’m going out there tomorrow and scoring way more than 21. There are some guys out, coach said I have to be ready for big minutes, well, he’ll be surprised when I show him how ready I really am. Him and everybody else. Especially this loser…this…” Garrett paused to consult his iPhone screen again. “…DownToBuck, whoever he is.”
“Bae, all he’ll do is say it’s another career high and he’ll move on with his life. You need to move on with yours too.”
“NO!” Garrett yelled. “I will subjugate him by the sheer force of my scoring.” There was no further response from the woman in his bed. Still stinging from the injustice of the prematurely-awarded career highs, Garrett went to sleep himself, hell-bent on shooting as many shots in the next game as coach would let him take.