On Sunday, Darnell phoned Indiana. The topic came from Philadelphia: after the 76ers’ media day, while Anfernee Simons was still answering reporters’ questions, LeBron James’s helicopter was heard leaving the site. Tyrese Maxey, meanwhile, had car trouble and had sat down on the kerb.
“I ain’t gonna lie, that was funny. One of us left in a helicopter, the other one was sitting on the curb,” Maxey said, according to BasketNews. The outlet adds that LeBron James will make more helicopter trips this season: he will split his time between homes in Philadelphia and New York.
Let me tell you, I started with a memory. In 2000, I arrived in Charleroi with one bag and a one-year contract. The first evening, the club minibus left without me. I sat down on the kerb outside the hall, the one with the badminton lines, and I waited. The caretaker drove me home, switching off half the lights as he went. I told my mother that Maxey and I had the same kerb, twenty-six years apart. She thought about it. Then she asked which of the two had laughed. I said: Maxey. She said he was the one who had won the day, because a helicopter tells no stories. I admitted that in 2000, on my kerb, I had not laughed. She said: see? It took you twenty-six years to find that funny.
The starting five the Sixers have put together, according to BasketNews: Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and Joel Embiid. More helicopter trips are on the way; this one has already been told, by the man who stayed on the ground.
Darnell, for his part, learned long ago never to get on the minibus last. Here, we call that fundamentals.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
