“Psst, Raul! Over here!”
Raul Neto, walking out to the team bus after a well-executed victory over the Clippers, stopped in his tracks. He could have sworn that somebody had just whispered his voice…
“I’m in the trash can, you dummy!” said the voice.
There was a trash can nearby, and the voice indeed did seem to be coming from that direction. Feeling somewhat like he was losing his mind, Raul ventured over and pushed in the flap to peer inside.
Suddenly, a face popped into view, and Raul jumped backwards. “It’s the trash goblins my mom always warned me about!” he exclaimed, preparing to run away.
“You’re dumber than the average rookie, aren’t you? Trash goblins, are you serious? You should recognize me, most Brazilians do.”
Edging closer to the receptacle, fearful that these words might simply be the trickery of a devious trash goblin, Raul took a closer look at the owner of the voice.
“Nene? What are you doing in a trash can? Shouldn’t you be with your team?”
“I needed to give you some advice in private,” Nene responded, as if this was a reasonable explanation for why he had come all the way to Los Angeles to sit in a trash can.
“Well, you’d better hurry up. I don’t want to be known as the guy on the team who talks to inanimate objects.”
Nene frowned. “Hey rookie, show some respect to your elders. Now, I’m about to drop this wisdom on you whether you want it or not. I didn’t spend four hours in this cramped little thing just for you to get away without hearing what I have to say.”
“Fine,” Raul responded, looking over his shoulder. A teammate could walk by at any moment.
“If you want the Brazilian people to love you, you gotta play for the national team, no matter how injured you are or how much you need to preserve your body for the fat NBA checks,” Nene said. “Brazil hates me. It might not be fair, but there it is. If you want your country on your side, you gotta drop everything every summer to play for them.”
Raul nodded. “My whole family asks me, ‘Raulzinho, when do you get to play against Nene?’ They badly want me to kick your ass.”
“That will be your fate if you decline invitations to play for Brazil,” Nene repeated. “Now, could you help me get out of this thing? The opening is super tight.”