12 Sports Aces, January 1943 — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BASKET LARCENY 35 ketball player. He’d been well known even in college, and his four years of pro competition since hadn’t let his repu- - tation Iag. Now on the bench with a trick knee, he was glad this was the last game he’d be sitting out. The knee was hbetter.~Bounee Bender had been swell to step in for him up until now. Willie. grinned as Bounce dropped in another one for the Jewelers. The pro- league fight was a tough one. If the Jew- elers came through, their long-ailing chief planned to quit, and Willie hoped to succeed him as coach. That was why Willie had taken it upen himself to find a crackerjack substitute when his knee went bad. Bounce was an old school chum. Bounce scuttled a long one from mid- floor, and the final gun cracked on a 38-22 score. The smooth-rolling Jewelers had slicked another game! Willie got up, swarmed with the rest of the team toward the gym exit. He was heading for the locker stairs when he saw Dinter. Dinter stopped Willie, took him aside. Dinter was the Jeweler owner. Willie’s only hitch to stepping in as coach after winning the championship was Dinter’s opposition. Dinter believed a basketball Player was a little less than a human being. Dinter drew out a paper from his thin wallet. “I got something to tell you, Phelan,” he said. “We're letting you go. Dropping you from the roster.” Dinter’s lips worked briskly around the stogie in his mouth. He held forth a check. He did not smile, but his eyes held a calculating delight, ‘Bounce Bender has decided to stick, We needed a point-getter. That fills our roster nicely. ’m sure you won’t have trouble getting something else, Phelan.” Willie felt the floor tilt under him. “Wait a minute,” he choked, uncompre- hendingly. “I got Bounce this job. He’s not the kind of guy who’d jerk a seat out frem under—” , But there was a surging crowd of de- parting fans in the gym corridor, and Dinter was already being swirled away in it. Willie caught at his lower lip and let out a breath. Numbly, he went on down the stairs into the locker room, rubbing trembling fingers through his short-cut hair. Bounce was just skinning out of his jersey. The other players, in various stages of undress, stopped and looked ill at ease. . Moe Meyers, a guard, said, “We’re sorry as hell, Willie—” Bounce threw aside his shirt, stepped toward Willie. “Look,” he said. ‘‘When I took this on, Willie, I didn’t know it would mean they were letting you go.” “So what are you going to do about it?” Willie asked. Bounce shrugged. “What can I do? I talked to Dinter. He says if I don’t take it, they’ll get somebody else in your place © anyway. And I got my name on a con- tract.” -. “You mean you’re going to stay on?” — Willie choked. Bounce said, “I got others to think about too. Family responsibilities. You understand, don’t you, Willie?” Willie stared at Bounce Bender. At his disarming smile and boyishly curly hair. If he hadn’t heard it himself, he wouldn’t have believed it. Why, he and Bounce had played college basketball together! They’d been frat brothers at Northern, shared dorm rooms and double-dated. Bounee said, “You should know in this game they pay oif on what you shew.” Willie turned away. “Friendship, I thought, was something pretty,” he said. “Sure, I know in this game it’s the devil take the hindmost. But it goes pretty deep when it’s your own pal who cuts your throat.” Bitter disappointment blurred Willie’s eyes as he found his way to his loeker. ESPITE the fact that pro basket- ball was pretty much shot on ac- count of the war, only two days elapsed before Willie got on with the Q@ilers. The personnel chief said, “You have to work at a job here. I'll get you some light desk jeb at the refinery. We don’t pay out a lot of cash like the Jewelers.” “Vl make you a player,” Willie prom- ised. “All I want is a ehance to get in COMIC OOOLK (C©)