Number 23 and Me

By Wayne Pounds

This is not just a sports story. This is not just a political story, nor is this just a pop culture story. This is a story about a script written in 1984 about a star baller, who cares deeply about his community, has no father in the home, with the last name James who skipped college and went straight to the pros just like Lebron James.

I

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Merrill Publishing Inc
• Release date: Apr 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781950719129

Wayne Pounds

Wayne Ethan Pounds is an author, screen writer and technical literature writer. He currently resides in Atlanta, GA, but was born and raised in the great state of OH-IO. Wayne married his wife Hermine at the tender age of 19. At the time of publication, he has been married to his beautiful wife for 35 yrs 9 months 29 days 7 hrs And 23 mins. He is a father of four and the grandfather of three. As a kid, he loved basketball and roller skating. As a teenager he mastered the unicycle, played basketball on it, wore number 23 and performed in Spain. He was 20 yrs old when he wrote the original prophetic script concerning Lebron James.

Book preview

1984

The Draft

The 1984 NBA draft was the 37th annual draft for the National Basketball Association. It was held at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, on June 19, 1984, before the 1984-1985 season. The draft was broadcast in the United States on the USA Network. In this draft, 23 NBA teams selected amateur college basketball players and other eligible international players. The Houston Rockets won the coin flip and were awarded the first overall pick, while the Portland Trail Blazers, who obtained the Indiana Pacers' first-round pick in a trade, were awarded the second pick. The remaining first-round picks and the following rounds were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win-loss record in the previous season.

Before the draft, five college underclassmen announced that they would leave college early, and would be eligible for selection, including Michael Jordan. The draft consisted of 10 rounds comprising the selection of 228 players. This draft was the last to be held before the creation of the draft lottery in 1985. It was also the first NBA draft to be overseen by David Stern, who would continue as the commissioner of the league for the following 30 years, arguably the greatest commissioner, in modern-day sports history.

The Houston Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon, a junior center from the University of Houston. The Nigerian-born Olajuwon became the second foreign-born player to be drafted first overall, after Mychal Thompson from the Bahamas in 1978. His son, the three-time NBA champion, Klay Thompson, is one half of the Splash Brothers (Curry & Thompson). The Portland Trail Blazers used the second overall pick to draft Sam Bowie from the University of Kentucky. The Chicago Bulls used the third pick to draft Naismith and Wooden College Player of the Year Michael Jordan from the University of North Carolina. Jordan went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award. The outspoken Charles Barkley, a junior forward from Auburn University, was then drafted fifth by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley, and the 16th pick John Stockton were also named as part of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History list announced at the league's 50th anniversary. Olajuwon's achievements include back-to-back NBA championships, including two Finals MVP Awards, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Defensive Player of the Year Awards, twelve All-Star Game selections and nine All-Defensive Team selections. Olajuwon retired as the all-time league leader in total blocked shots with 3,830 blocks.

The third pick, Michael Jordan, achieved even greater success than Olajuwon and became the face, and the foot, of the NBA around the world. He won six NBA championships rings, including two 3 peats and six Finals Most Valuable Player Awards. Jordan also collected five Most Valuable Player Awards, one Defensive Player of the Year Award, eleven All-NBA Team selections, fourteen All-Star Game selections, three NBA All-Star Game MVP Awards, and nine All-Defensive Team selections. Barkley and Stockton never won an NBA championship mostly due to two letters, MJ. Nevertheless, both players received numerous awards and honors. Jordan, Barkley, and Stockton would later play as teammates on the Dream Team, which was the finest international event that the NBA has ever been a part of, showcasing Air Jordan and Magic Johnson to the world. Now boys and girls everywhere wanted to be like Mike, and they had the shoes to prove it.

The Trail Blazers selection of Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan would become an ah-ha moment, as Oprah Winfrey puts it, in NBA draft history. The 1984 draft class is considered to be one of the best in NBA history as it produced five Hall of Famers and seven All-Stars. However, it was also marred by the Blazers' selection of Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. Although Bowie may have been a nice guy, he is considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history. It is rationalized that the Blazers picked previously injured Bowie over Michael Jordan because they already had an All-Star shooting guard in Jim Paxson, and a young shooting guard in Clyde Drexler, whom they drafted in the 1983 draft. Although Drexler went on to have a successful career, Bowie's career was cut short by injuries, and five leg surgeries.

The Swoosh

Once we moved into the age of the Swoosh, the big problem that the NFL had was that their players wore helmets, and the player's facial recognition was less than that of an NBA player. Emmitt Smith who won three Super Bowl rings with the Dallas Cowboys, which was my favorite team growing up, use to take his helmet off after scoring a touchdown for that very same reason. He went on to do many commercials; he won the tv show, Dancing with The Stars, and worked as a long-time national broadcast analyst for the NFL. So, the NFL added a rule and started penalizing players for taking off their helmet after a touchdown.

Also, with three Super Bowl rings, Troy Aikman was supposed to be the face of America's team, the Dallas Cowboys but this Brother kept scoring touchdowns and taking off his helmet. The owners did not like not being in control, especially Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. So, they used the excuse that it may someday, in the future, possibly be seen as taunting. That was poppycock. They did not tell him to do it, and they wanted him to stop, immediately. The Rule, instituted in 1997, states that players would be penalized for removing their helmets at any time other than timeouts. Thus, The Emmitt Smith Rule was born.

The player tried to build facial recognition which would have helped the league grow and connect with their audience on a more humanistic note, but the NFL owners had cooked up this new rule without completely thinking it through. The NFL is an owners' league, whereas, the NBA seems to listen more attentively to their players, and star players, whose faces the fans, and the general public know more readily.

As a kid, I liked President Ronald Reagan; he had been an actor before he became the Governor of California. Ronald Reagan was a nice guy who highly cherished his second wife, Nancy. His first Hollywood marriage, to actress Jane Wyman, did not work. His son, from that Marriage, who grew up to be a proud atheist, which is someone that proclaims that they do not believe that God even exists, said that his dad respected the office of president so much that he never went into the Oval Office without having on his suit jacket. Ronald Reagan unveiled his Star Wars program, and they started to send satellites into space. ARPANET adopted TCP/IP on January 1, 1983, and from there, researchers began to assemble the network of networks. I believe that these acts helped roll us into the information age, setting a foundation for the internet, and the world wide web.

Although I was a young man, and not so much into politics, I remember when Michael Jordan refused to go to the White House because of political reasons. Not much of a fuss, Michael protested by not going. Ironically, the first NBA champs to visit the White House were the Boston Celtics, in 1963, the year MJ was born.

One of Michael Jordan's teammates, Horace Grant, said, We had to go or else, but Michael did not have to go. You see the Chicago Bulls could trade any other player that gave them a problem, but they were not going to trade, Air Jordan.

Michael got it honest. He had watched Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Earvin Magic Johnson, after Jordan's rookie year, on the White House lawn with Ronald Reagan (June 10, 1985), the day after they had won the championship (June 9, 1985). The NBA ambushed the players, giving them less than 24 hours to prepare, knowing that they were mostly, if not all, of the Democratic persuasion, and President Reagan, was the top Republican. As Kareem is the first Laker to approach the microphone, he leans over and respectfully tells the president that he is not a republican. He goes on to say that he is one of his constituents, so he's there to present him with a championship jersey, and a few kind words. President 45 would have turned bright orange, called him a son of a bitch, and said, to be honest; he was cheering for Boston to win anyway and got punched in the face by Bob McAdoo. The Secret Service would have jumped in, and it would have been known as, The Brawl At The White House Garden. You see, Big Bob came from a different era, they did not play. I remember Bob McAdoo or Elvin Hayes jabbed a white player for, I guess, calling him out of his name, with the left hand as he kept dribbling with the right hand, never missing a beat or taking his eye off the other players on the court. The white player said something else, and he one, two’ed the white player, and the white player went down. I did not believe what I had witnessed on national TV until they showed it on the instant replay.

Kareem was followed by a 21-year-old Magic Johnson who seemed nervous and could not find the right words to say. So, in his magical way, he passed the ball when he said, Kareem said it all, I defer to the big guy. I've never seen Magic Johnson make such a sweet assist, but the entire visual was out of joint because the microphone on the podium was low for the president, but all of these basketball players were tall. President Ronald Reagan brought up the fact that it was easier for them (the players) to bend down, and impossible for him (the president) to reach up to the microphone if it were set for their height. Michael Jordan probably said then, I am going to win the NBA championship, but I am not going to the White House, and bend down to be heard.

First Quarter:

I Want To Be Like Mike, I Wish I Could Be Like Mike

The reason why I say that I was the first to write about LeBron James is in my, 1987 copyrighted futuristic sports film script; the main character that I started writing about in 1984. He is a star baller from the streets. He has no father in the home, he's an all-around nice guy that cares deeply about his community, his last name is James, and he skips college, and goes directly to the pros. There is even an older blind man in his life, just like LeBron James.

Gordon Gund, the blind owner, bought the Cleveland Cavaliers from Ted Stepien in 1983 the year before LeBron James was born, for $20 million, to keep the team in Cleveland, and at Richfield Coliseum, which Gund owned. Stepien had threatened to move the team to Toronto. Gund gradually began going blind in the 1960s due to retinitis pigmentosa. By 1970, Gund was completely blind. In 1971, Gund co-founded the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation, now known as The Foundation Fighting Blindness, which supports research to find cures and treatments for retinal degenerative diseases. I respect this son of a Gund, because although he was wealthy, he was not soft, never letting this major ailment stop him.

Gund brought new energy to Cleveland. He replaced the team's logo and uniform design, replacing the Swashbuckling Swordsman with the team's nickname of 'Cavs' with a stylized 'V.' This is the first foreshadowing of the prophetic side of this story concerning the soon coming king of the hardwood. The initials CAV stand for Certification, Authentication, Verification. The is a department in academia used to verify your records and transcript. LeBron was certified, authenticated, and verified before he arrived. Great athletes are discussed long after they retire, but the Chosen One, as Sports Illustrated put it, is the one that was written about before he came, and long after he leaves the game. This is what this book is all about.

Now under Gund’s ownership, attendance figures started to rise. Gund Arena was built and replaced the Coliseum, and attendance figures kept growing for the next 16 years, according to the Cavaliers' media guide, heading into the 2004–2005 season. Gund’s most notable achievement in the final years of his ownership was drafting high school prodigy and Ohio native LeBron James with the first round, number 1 draft pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, a move which helped really rejuvenate interest among the fan base and starts this prophecy in motion concerning the Chosen One of the hardwood.

In 2005, Gund sold controlling interest of the team, for $375 million, to Quicken Loans founder and billionaire, Dan Gilbert, maintaining a minority ownership stake for himself, now reportedly worth an additional $160 million.

Gund has an NBA Championship to his credit via his status as a minority owner of the team during the 2015-2016 title-winning season. Gund Arena since renamed Quicken Loans Arena became a cornerstone of the redevelopment of downtown Cleveland, which was also bolstered by Jacobs Field, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the new Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Gund family also operated one of the founding franchises of the WNBA, the Cleveland Rockers.

Me

I was a different kind of kid. I always liked basketball, bikes, skating or anything with wheels. So, when I was 16 years old, with a driver's license, and out of things to do, I saw a kid riding a unicycle one day. I made it my intention to learn and perfect riding the unicycle while dancing as we used to do at the skating rink.

The first skating rink that I went to was Rollerland in Columbus, Oh. This skating rink thing was new. It was my first time. The speed of the skaters was like people rolling down the street in cars. You could feel the breeze as the skaters rolled by. I could have gotten my brain smashed out. My brother Brian, his godbrother Billy, and I all got dropped off at the skating rink. They let me go out on the floor, by myself, the first time at the rink as they sat back and laughed at me, stumbling around, barely avoiding getting run over by the much bigger crowd. I fearlessly wobbled across the skate floor, but to their surprise, a pretty young girl, who was older than me, took me by the hand and led me over to the wall. She said, start here. I still remember her soft hands and her saving grace, almost 50 years later. It was like I was, touched by an angel. Then after a few times around, I was able to let the wall go and skate on my own, while they were still sitting on the sidelines with their eyes popped wide open saying, damn, he did it.

The way you were supposed to learn to skate, like many things in life, was by holding the wall first. My brother and Billy did not tell me that and I was the kind of kid that just dove in. I could have gotten killed that day. At Rollerland they usually jumped over the people that fell, option two was to go around the person. So, if you were getting up as they jumped over your head, you could easily take a set of skate wheels to the brain, with no helmet.

Next, I learned at a much calmer skating rink called the Douglas Party House on 5th Avenue, in Columbus, Ohio, where there were not as many skaters and I was able to get a lot better. Then I went on to USA East skating rink where I perfected my craft and won trophies with my skating partner Mark Watson. We skated in matching blue jean bib overalls during the contest and got to stay out late until two o’clock in the morning.

Being in those skating contests was my introduction to entertainment and performing as a child. I started going to USA East because of my Uncle Rick. He liked my aunt, Charlesie. So, he came and took all of us to the skating rink every Sunday and Wednesday for family night skating. Aunt Charlesie was a very pretty redbone, or light-skinned woman, and Rick wanted her bad. He took the whole family skating and picked us up for church on Sunday morning. But his mistake was, he only dropped us off because he did not go with us to church. I first learned a lot about the word prophecy in the church and that is what this story is all about, the LeBron James Prophecy, and now, we are all witnesses.

Now, I have four nights at the skating rink Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Uncle Rick even took us to see the movie, Jaws. This was my first time at the movie theater. My mom used to take us to the drive-in movie, but this one you sat inside. I liked it better.

I, also, went consistently to the skating rink with my cousin Patty on Friday or Saturday nights. My parents felt good about having me out with Uncle Rick or cousin Patty because my parents knew I was with someone who would keep me safe, I would be out of their hair, and able to go out to have fun. Later, my cousin Patty was the first person that I knew who suffered from mental illness, and I saw how mental illness could swoop in on a person who's in their 20s or 30s, and change their life into something you could never imagine. I will always love Patty, and always be thankful for the time that she spent with me in my formative years. You were the cool big cousin who took me everywhere and broadened my horizons. I love you cuz.

So, now I am 16 years old. I used to ride long distances on my unicycle. I would ride to the east side of town. I would ride so far that many times I would have to call somebody to come and pick me up. A white guy hollered out the door one day, and said, go bro as I rolled down the street. Later one day a black guy looked at me, and said, go ahead Wayne Brady, which was a way of calling me a black/white guy. My name is Wayne, so it took a couple of peddles before the slight sunk in.

I was perfecting my craft and got pretty good. I could ride my unicycle down bumpy streets. I could jump up street curbs, so I could make it passed, or go around, anything. So, my long-distance riding picked up and I loved it — just me, my wheel, and getting to my destination.

Second Quarter

Miami

Just like LeBron, I took my talents to South Beach. I loved going to Miami as a little kid. I remember going down there several times with my mother and the rest of the kids. Papa usually never traveled with the family when we visited my Aunt Hattie in Miami. She had a house full of sons and daughters and they always had a full house of friends from the neighborhood. We had lots of fun and I distinctly remember going to the beach, the sand, and the waves. I loved the memories of Miami so much that when I was 18 years old and had to make a choice of what college to attend, the first thing I thought about was the sunshine, the oranges, and riding my unicycle down Miami Beach. The prophetic script concerning LeBron James is set in Miami. I used the 1982 and 1984 riots in the plot of the prophetic script.

Script Scene: Ext. Miami-Day Page: 7

A riot, buildings are burning, beatings and looting. The national guardsmen are in a defensive position and then they turn and March, in a single file line, into a large armored bus. A black priest is talking to a crowd of people.

Street (VO)

Miami erupted and North Miami became a war zone. People were getting killed on both sides. You see just two weeks prior to the Toni Kelly killing a black insurance man had been killed by two off duty cops. That set the inner city on edge. But the murder of a 12-year-old honor student, sent the entire community over the edge. After about three weeks the National Guard was called off and it seemed as though people were looking for a solution, instead of a reason.

I was living in Miami but was not there at the time of the riots. I had met a special young lady the first 24 hours that I arrived in Miami and she is now my wife of 35 years. I had to take care of that very fast so that I could get back to writing the prophetic script about the soon coming king of the court.

I had gone back to Columbus, Ohio, because I needed my car. The young lady that I met at work on my second day in Miami, months later, would not let me take her home from work because I was riding on my cousin’s scooter. I had a job on my second day in town, not bad. I was the dishwasher loader and she was a beautiful waitress from the island of Jamaica. The accent alone blew my mind, yes mon!

So, she may have saved my life because the same week that I went home to get my smoke gray Ford Mustang, from Columbus, Ohio, Miami was submerged in riots. People were killing, looting, and robbing. Then, what looked like, the national guard was called out.

When I returned to Miami and saw what happened, I was confused and kind of scared. Some of my cousins had taken part in the riots and they had all these long stories and started to explain to a group of their guys. I listened to their stories and then I started to question them why you would tear up your neighborhood because somebody else did something to you. Why wouldn’t you tear up their neighborhood? I noticed the guys in the room as their demeanor started to change and I shut up. Even my cousins looked at me strangely, like, negro please. It is an art of knowing when to shut up. The fact was that during the riots, the heavily armored police riot units were always stationed around certain affluent white neighborhoods. If you crossed that line, you were dead.

This was all being downloaded into my psyche. The social injustice and the push back of the people. The smell of the saltwater ocean, Miami Beach, 79th Street Causeway, Little Haiti, Opa Locka, Liberty City. I was good. My first son was born in Miami, at Jackson Memorial Hospital. After that, I headed to Spain for six months performing on an Island called Ibiza. Then, I moved straight to NYC, where I would pen this modern-day prophecy concerning the king of the court.

Third Quarter

NYC

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in Brooklyn, NY. Feb 17, 1963, a year before me. This is where I lived when I started to write the story in 1984. Running for the train and fights are what I remember. You had to fight in NY. I could talk my way through situations in Ohio but that did not work so well in NY. At 5’6 tall and 190 lbs. with an OH-IO accent, it seemed like trouble gravitated towards me, usually at work or on the train going to or from work.

My first day there, as I approached the station, the overhead J Train started to come, and I started to run because everybody else started to run. I didn't even know if that was my train heading in that direction. I just ran and kept running the whole time that I lived in NY. That is what you do when you live in the Big Apple. You work two to three jobs and you are always on the go. Two jobs were standard. Some Jamaicans worked three jobs or tree jobs mon. I worked one job at night as a security guard, so I could get some sleep, and go directly to the next job in the morning. Then in the afternoon, I taught children how to ride unicycles, and perform, on my own dime. Then I met the legend, Detective William Vargas, at Starrett City, in Brooklyn NY.

The Legend was an original King Charles Rider. These guys came from the Bronx, and they played basketball, just like the Harlem Globetrotters, except they did it on one wheel. In 1968 King Charles Troupe auditioned for Ervin Feld, the owner of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The King Charles Troupe became the first all-black act in the history of RBBBC. The King Charles Troupe went on to set other records and perform with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus for almost 50 years. Barnum & Bailey circus never put The King Charles Troupe as a headliner and now Barnum & Bailey is out of business mainly due to PETA's effect on their declining revenue. Despite their excellent showmanship and professionalism over four decades, The King Charles Troupe was always placed as a second act to Gunther Gebel, the lion tamer or Siegfried, and Roy, the lion lovers. It was odd because, years later, I would be in Vegas, on a company trip, and visited Siegfried and Roy's exhibit where they kept their tigers and other animals and reptiles, used in their act. Roy had been attacked the night before on October 3, 2003. They said the first thing he asked when he woke up was, is Montecore ok, as he called the tiger by name.

This was the birthplace of Uniball, basketball on unicycles: not the circus nor Las Vegas but the Bronx, NY. Like Mr. Jerry King, the military vet and ex numbers man who became a father and turned into a community changer, who founded The King Charles Troupe, I also took my oldest son Chance outside to teach him how to ride his unicycle when he was six years old in Brooklyn, NY. We started an organization called Project Unicycle. We had 30 to 40 kids of all nationalities and sizes that could ride. They ranged from age three to age fourteen. First, we practiced in front of our basement apartment that we paid $700.00 per month for 34 years ago. It was a real basement with the storm door that led directly outside and flooded when it rained hard.

I started to practice my uni-basketball game. I was on two-a-days. I wanted to join The King Charles Troupe. I wrote a letter to Charles King, Mr. Jerry King's son, who was then heading the troupe in Las Vegas at the Beyond Belief Showroom in the Frontier Hotel. They were part of the act for Siegfried and Roy who made tigers appear, as part of their show. I finally got to audition for The King Charles Troupe. Charlie King came to my home one summer day. I pulled out my unicycle, clicked on my boom box, and started to ride, and dance on my unicycle. Afterward, he took my unicycle and did tricks that I could not do. He looked at my wife, and kids, and said as he left, I am not breaking up any families. I kind of got mad at my wife and thought but never said you, and these kids are holding me back. At that time, I did not know that The King Charles Troupe was traveling on a train, with two guys sharing a room the size of two NYC taxi cabs for 50 weeks of the year and smelling a lot of elephant shit and racism all in exchange for being pioneers. They were like a traveling pro team of ambassadors of razzle dazzle basketball on one wheel as they visited almost every state in the USA and performed around the world with precious memories, and life experiences in exchange. They were pioneers in the entertainment business for 40 years. The King Charles Troupe are G.O.A.T.

She had just saved my life a second time. I would have never made it with The King Charles Troupe. They had very strict rules, and they were living in a box, well a boxcar. Charles King died a couple of years later, in a car accident, as The King Charles Troupe traveled between Las Vegas and California. The King Charles Troupe performed with Barnum & Bailey until the greatest show on earth ended in 2017.

Fourth Quarter

I wish I could be like Mike. Michael Jordan was the newest star of the NBA. The Oprah Winfrey Show started to shine that year, and Spike Lee, who had that twinkle in his eye was becoming the black Woody Allen of NYC. I was breaking into acting also. I had an agent. I was starting to do some commercial work for MTV, and a few other shows. My Uniball game was getting better. I could go right or left. I could hit the pull up jumper or throw the no-look pass. I even had the tongue wag going on.

I took wanting to be like Mike to a different level. I even produced a uniball segment for a tv show called, Street Games where I became Willy Jordan. I wanted to star in a film about a uniball player except no one was going to write that script, so I wrote it. At church, they say, here I am Lord, send me! So, I started writing every night.

You see, I was a security guard in NYC with no gun at night. I was determined not to get killed out there. Many of the young guys out after midnight, when my shift started, had guns.