- Ritch
Plank Brothers now available!
Plank Brothers is now available to order! You can grab the paperback version for $9.99, or the e-book version for $2.99 through Amazon. Click on the cover image below to visit the Plank Brothers page on our website. Also, check out the last excerpt from the book below.
Without taking a single warmup shot or layup, Williams walked out onto the court. He sat on the bench with a quiet intensity and stoically wiped the bottom of his sneakers, a pair of Ewing Athletics Focus x John Starks “The Dunk” in brown and orange with a hint of royal blue. The shoes matched his Wilder County Pirates white uniform trimmed in brown with orange cursive “Wilder County” across the front. Williams wore jersey number three, his mom’s favorite number and John Starks’ old Knicks jersey number as well.
Precious Rollins inbounded the ball to Jolly, and a stone-faced Williams picked him up immediately. As Jolly crossed the time stripe, he immediately looked for Rollins on the left wing, but Danny Fisher’s ball deny defense had the Newmarket superstar all hemmed up. Seeing his teammate swarmed and unable to wiggle free, Jolly decided to test Williams’ defense.
Jolly went hard toward the lane with his right hand, crossed over to his left for two dribbles and then spun back the other way into the middle of the lane to launch a right-handed floater. Williams stayed between Jolly and the basket the entire way, perfectly timed his jump and blocked the shot with pent up ferocity.
The ball hit the hardwood with tremendous impact, bounced high into the air and safely landed in the hands of Kobe Applegate. He quickly shuffled the ball to Williams who shot down the court like a rocket. The Newmarket transition defense was in complete disarray, so no defender stopped the ball. Williams took it all the way to the rack. Everyone expected a layup as the six-foot-tall Williams leapt from just inside the dotted line. The young man kept rising and rising and rising until at last he threw down a right-handed slam dunk that stunned everyone in attendance.
The Wilder County contingent exploded in jubilation. Welcome to Starks, Mike Williams!
Gary, Sally, and Meg hugged and pumped their fists. Joe and Marcia Taylor looked at each other with celebratory relief.
Mike ran back down the court, getting high fives and back-slaps from his teammates along the way. He let himself smile. And it wasn’t forced, like every other time he’d pretended since the previous spring. It was genuine, and he felt a surge of relief and happiness he forgot existed in the world. He slapped the floor as he and his teammates got set to defend once more, though he knew in his heart there was nothing that was going to get in his way of leading the team to victory.