10 July 2026, Freewriters Community Daily Writing Prompt Day 3160: intermediate at best
“See, grandson, in life, here's something to notice. You can always tell the performing pretender – he looks right to the fans, but his real skills are intermediate at best, and when he reaches a certain level or a certain age, he can't hide it any more. That's not what we're seeing from my soon-to-be opponent, Capt. R.E. Ludlow Sr.: that man was as excellent a college ball player as I was, because you can see him modeling and teaching the game to his grandchildren and see that.”
16-year-old Thomas Stepforth III, also known as Tom, was taking notes about life more than basketball from his grandfather, 66-year-old Thomas Stepforth Sr., while they were observing the captain doing shoot-around with his eight grandchildren, right down to five-year-old R.E. Ludlow III -- “Lil' Hustle Man,” Mrs. Velma Stepforth affectionately nicknamed the baby grandson, because although he was the shortest with the shortest legs, he was always getting back into position for his turn to catch the ball.
“Have you ever seen such a set of white folks who are just natural-born athletes?” Tom said to his grandfather about watching the Ludlows.
“Just goes to show us what we already know: doesn't pay to be a bigot,” the grandfather said, and that's how a longer conversation started about life in general and what could be observed just by watching a neighboring family.
“The other thing I can tell about Capt. Ludlow,” Mr. Stepforth was saying in that portion of the conversation, “he is a few years out of practice, but he played hard Army pickup games into his mid-fifties, because even though he is a step slow now, the reflexes of playing serious ball for decades are there. His oldest grandchildren are fast and strong enough to challenge him in terms of throw and catch, but he is getting back into the groove smoothly and even able to make sure to pretty much drop the ball into the littler ones' arms and keep them engaged.”
“What I see,” Tom said, “is the difference between how you play with Milton and how you play with me and Melvin – you cut us no slack, but you know Milton still needs time to get bigger and learn more.”
“I cut y'all no slack for the same reason Capt. Ludlow is going to be my age and just messing up George who will be the age you are now: I've showed y'all how to do this, and y'all keep on trying to make it up from whatever you saw Lebron James and Steph Curry do last season. Every person has got to do life as themselves, and when you try to be somebody else, you waste time and life punishes you for that.”
“So, you punish us on the basketball court because you don't want us to get the wrong idea,” Tom said.
“Yes, because by now, you and Melvin should be winning more games – you have the height advantages, and the age advantages. You refuse to get it together, so, I gotta show you the other way isn't going to work … and if you think about what happens to men trying to play God in the world, the same kind of teaching keeps happening.”
“OK, that's deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, Pop-Pop,” Tom said, “but yeah, because would you get a load of that right there … .”
“Listen, George,” Capt. Ludlow was saying gently to George, “this is why you are getting beat by my namesake your baby brother and also by the garage door: you can't be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The skyhook doesn't work if you aren't at least seven feet tall. Rob will jump up and reject that shot coming from you all day long while you taste garage door. Your jumpshot has the same kind of problem: you do not have the vertical leaping ability of His Airness, Michael Jordan or his landing surety. You cannot get that shot above Rob's leaping ability fast enough without also throwing yourself off balance. Your best shot is to learn how your body works best to get elevation, and maybe come do leg day with Rob and me.”
“Well, what if I modify a Lebron-style dunk?” George said, and the two Stepforths observing broke out laughing
“Yeah, he's in trouble,” Tom said, “and I get what you are saying now, Pop-Pop. You gotta learn how to be the you God made you to be.”
“Right, because performing and pretending isn't going to get it,” Mr. Stepforth said. “I'm going to have to actually play good ball with Capt. Ludlow like I did good business with him today, because the way you do one thing is the way you do anything when you are a person of integrity.”