“Hey Rookie.”
John Collins looked up to find his teammate Dennis Schröder standing in front of him. “Hey Dennis. Do you need me to get more donuts for the team?” he joked.
Dennis did not laugh. “I have something serious to discuss with you. Something much more serious than requesting another errand of you.”
John raised his eyebrows and adopted a serious demeanor. “Sure.”
Pulling a crumpled sheet of notebook paper out of his pocket, Dennis handed it to his rookie teammate. “Look at this list, then tell me what you think about it.”
Reading down the list quickly, John saw the names of some past Atlanta Hawks players: Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, Al Horford, Kyle Korver, and Dwight Howard. All the names were crossed off. “It’s just some of your old teammates,” he said, not knowing what the point of this exercise was.
“It’s more than that, John. This list means that I’m the one who runs this team now. It’s my team. It’s definitely not yours and never will be.”
“I never said it would be my team,” John said conciliatingly, feeling uncomfortable with Dennis’ focused stare on him. “I agree with you 100%. It’s your team. Definitely.”
“Good,” Dennis said, taking the list back from the rookie and returning it to his pocket. Then, he lifted up his jersey and pulled aside his shorts to display the garment that he was wearing underneath them. “Do you know what these are?”
John couldn’t make sense of the heavy brown fabric. The suspenders also confused him. “I don’t know.”
“They’re my magic lederhosen. Detlef Schrempf gave them to me because I am the savior of German basketball,” Dennis explained proudly. “You’re not allowed to wear them. Only I get to wear the magic lederhosen and reap their magical powers. If you were to even lay a finger on the magical fabric of the lederhosen, you would fall gravely ill.”
John blinked once, unsure how to respond. Finally, he said, “Got it. No touching the magic lederhosen.”
Dennis reached out and patted John on the shoulder. “I’m glad we are in agreement. Now, how about you get me and the rest of the guys some donuts?”