Two-Hand Jump Shot: A Middle School Story

By Charles Stansbury

Two-Hand Jump Shot: A Middle School Story is Mr. Stansburys fifth book. Other books he has written include:

Towards A New Spirit: Enough Is Enough
No Turning Around
Two-Fisted Champion
Three Crooked Roads

Mr. Stansbury holds an Associates degree from Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey, and both Bachelors and Masters degrees from Rider College, which is currently Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496964465

Charles Stansbury

Charles Stansbury is an African-American author. He is an adjunct faculty member at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, and Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania, where he teaches Writing Composition and College Reading. “Three Crooked Roads” is Mr. Stansbury’s fourth book. His other books are: - Towards A New Spirit: Enough Is Enough - No Turning Around - Two-Fisted Champion Mr. Stansbury has an MA degree in School Administration and Supervision from Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

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© 2015 Charles Stansbury. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/15/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6445-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6446-5 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Cover Art by:

Harold Robinson

INTRODUCTION

This story goes out to all those basketball players who conjure up the dream of someday being on a National Basketball Association (NBA) team. Of course people are allowed to dream, and in some instances, the dream can be unfulfilled or even deferred. But in other instances, it can be a quest that becomes fulfilled. Two-hand Jumpshot: A Middle School Story will take the reader on a journey that is based on several factors:

Its main character is a special education student, a low achiever who acknowledges that for him to play basketball, academic excellence is most important. Although the main character has a burning desire to someday become an NBA basketball player, however, he lacks the fundamental skills to play the game.

The main character acknowledges that it takes hard work to go after his dream, because after all, the chances of being a professional basketball player is one out of five thousand, especially when he doesn’t know how to play the game yet, which makes his chances even lesser. The main character also takes on an association with a female student, who happens to be his next door neighbor. She motivates him to succeed academically by helping him with his studies, but his teachers push him to the limit of being a high achiever.

Finally, the main character’s ability to master the fundamental skills of basketball enables him to become a star forward on his high school varsity team. But the question is will he be good enough to be a professional basketball player?

Two-Hand Jumpshot: A Middle School Story is an easy read. It offers the following principles:

1)  Hard work reaps positive results.

2)  To be a dreamer, there must be a plan.

3)  There must be positive people to be a motivational force in one’s life, if he or she is to succeed.

I suggest you read the story and allow it to take you on a journey toward the answer to whether the dream is fulfilled or unfulfilled … or even deferred.

CHAPTER 1

The urban neighborhood called Lakawanna Avenue was alive with multi-colored kids playing in the streets, and the roaring sound of a freight train could be heard a short distance away. The girls were playing jump rope and the boys riding their dirt bikes up and down the concrete pavement. The noisy neighborhood dogs had also contributed to the urban landscape by their non-stop barking in the yards where they were confined.

Ben James lived at the end of the block. He was a skinny, twelve year old kid whose parents had defined their economic status as being broke most of the time. Of course, broke didn’t necessarily mean they were poor, but that they really never had any extra money to spend on things that could make them happy, such as going to the movies or taking a vacation trip. Their house was usually unpresentable to anyone who visited them, because the floors and furniture were dusty and needed a thorough cleaning. There were dirty dishes in the sink. The entire house reeked with a foul odor, accompanied by little brown critters crawling across the floors and furniture, scurrying into cracks and crevices of the walls and baseboards. An occasional mouse would enter the house, to take up residence with the brown critters.

Ben often looked unkempt when he went to school; wearing a wrinkled shirt and torn pants; unlaced high-top sneakers with smelly, unwashed socks inside them; and a baseball cap turned backwards on his head. Ben cared less about his appearance because he was a dreamer. His biggest dream was to be a professional basketball player, but there was one problem; he didn’t know how to play the game of basketball.

The boys at school also knew that Ben didn’t know how to play the game of basketball. They viewed him as being uncoordinated and pathetic, especially when he dribbled the basketball. When Ben dribbled, he would stop and then dribble again, which is called discontinuing or double dribbling. He didn’t know what a jumpshot was. He generally shot the basketball, and most of the time, never reaching the basket. The boys would always laugh Ben off the basketball court, and making him the brunt of cruel labels, such as the non-playing stick or the smack, crackle, pop player.

Ben’s favorite basketball player was Michael Jordan, because he could do anything with a basketball, including the art of leaping and suspending himself in mid-air, and then executing a thunderous slam dunk in the face of his opponents. That was how the name Air Jordan came about. And not only that, it also became a brand name for the Nike sneaker, demonstrated by a pictured silhouette of Michael gripping the basketball while leaping through the air.

Ben felt disappointed that he wasn’t wearing a pair of those Air Jordan sneakers; just a plain, ordinary pair of those no-name brands that gave him a dull feeling. If I had a pair of dose sneakers I could fly, he said to himself. But the reality was that it wouldn’t make a difference if he wore a pair of Air Jordans, or a pair of no-name brands. He would still be that kid who didn’t know how to play the game of basketball.

Pamela Prestonia is Ben’s next door neighbor. She and her parents disliked Ben and his parents because they were African American, and they being of white European origin, created a message that implied We’re better than you. Pamela thought Ben had an unappealing appearance. She considered him to be ghetto looking because his clothes were wrinkled, and he wore dirty looking socks in unlaced sneakers. Pamela had the impression that Ben had come from a poor family. Ben didn’t have polished speech. Pamela would often see and hear him talking to other kids in the neighborhood, using unusual hand gestures and double negatives in his sentences. Pamela had pinpointed that as ghetto acting," and formed a stereotypical view of all African American teenagers as being that way. Overall, Ben and his parents were viewed as losers to Pamela and her parents … what a shame!

Ben had a vague idea of being disliked by Pamela and her parents, by the way they would stare at him from their window, when he strolled pass their house in the morning. They would have a distasteful look on their faces. But Ben didn’t care because his biggest dream was to become a professional basketball player. Furthermore, he had already mentioned it to his father, who had considered it to be an absurd idea that needed to be dismissed from his mind.

Ben’s father had concerns of his own. He was laid off from his job as a fork-lift operator, and is currently receiving unemployment benefits, and has no health coverage. But his wife has managed to have him and Ben covered under her health insurance plan. She works as a high school teacher’s aide. With her paycheck combined with her husband’s unemployment check, they are barely meeting their economic needs. If only they could execute a plan to save a few dollars biweekly from their paychecks, there could possibly be a positive attitude expressed in the household, such as the desire to have more and better things; having a positive feeling about practicing effective money management skills; and having a positive attitude towards physical home improvement. But what about Ben? Well, he’s not exactly a scholar in the middle school. The fact is, he’s a low achieving, special education student. That’s nothing to be proud of. Does Ben care? Absolutely not. He’s caught up in a dream world … the game of basketball.

One evening when Ben was supposed to do his Math homework, he decided to turn on the television in his bedroom, to one of the professional basketball games. Ben’s father had come upstairs to see if he was doing his homework. Ben’s father was enraged to see him viewing the game, instead of knuckling down to school business. Boy, what do you think you’re doing? All you think about is basketball. You have two seconds to turn that television off! But dad, can I at lease watch da first quarter of the game? pleaded Ben. The answer is ‘no,’ Ben, his dad replied. You have this pipe dream of someday being a professional basketball player, but ignoring the fact that you need to get an education first. If I can recall from our last conversation, you mentioned that you didn’t know how to play the game of basketball. So I’m puzzled as to why you want to look at a basketball game, when you don’t know how to play. Well dad, I already know how da game of basketball is played; It’s dat I don’t have no skills, replied Ben. Well, right now, I need you to concentrate on those reading, writing and math skills that you’re weak in at school, his dad said with a stern tone.

Just then, Ben’s mother entered his bedroom with a pleasant smile on her face, pretending not to have heard her husband’s stern remarks to him. What’s going on guys? she asked with her pleasant sounding voice. Ben was sitting on his bed pouting and disappointed from his father’s command to turn off his television. "Yo, ma, one of da professional