Man in the Middle

Abstract

IntroductionAnd now the man in the middle, from Penn State, John A-meech-eeeeee.nI dash toward center court before it dawns on me that I'm supposednto look cool, as though I'd done this a million times. Thengame hasn't started, but I am sweating and light-headed. I cannbarely hear the PA announcer over the roar of the crowd; thenburst of flashbulbs adds to my rookie stupefaction.I glance up at Gund Arena's JumboTron, where my name andnimage flash in Technicolor. Feeling my way to center court, I joinnhands with the other starters. As my eyes scan the floor, there'snA-M-A-E-C-H-I again, dancing across the floor in laser beams.Teenaged boasts aside, I'd rarely allowed my mind to imaginenactually making it to the NBA. Less than a decade earlier, I was thenlaughing stock of my public school in Manchester, England -- an uncoordinated, hugely overweight nerd with Coke-bottle glassesnand no friends. I hadn't even touched a basketball until six yearsnearlier. That part of me still lived inside this newly minted NBAnbody.Amid the cacophony, I allow myself a rare flash of satisfactionnas my impossible dream becomes reality.I'm finally here. The N-fuckin'-B-A. n

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