Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Three phone calls and two video conferences later, I welcome the shifting light of sunset in my office. Finally this day is over, and I can go home. I’m packing up for the night when my resolve not to see if Maverick replied weakens. I reach into the top drawer of my desk for my cell phone. Probably half a dozen messages have come in since I started my meeting marathon.
No messages or missed calls from Aunt Geneva, to my relief. Some memes and GIFs on my thread with Soledad and Yasmen, which makes me smile. A text from Nelly to Kashawn and me about an “out-of-the-box” founder she wants to discuss tomorrow. There’s even a message from a one-minute man I had the misfortune of smashing last month. I was tempted to notify Guinness we had a new world record for fastest to come with complete disregard for his partner’s pleasure, but I figured they’re flooded with women claiming that daily.
Delete. Block. Never again.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… well that ain’t happening.
There’s even a message from Imani.
Imani: I know I’m a lot, but I love you and appreciate all the hustling you do for me, Hennessy. I have three tickets to the Waves game in San Diego next Wednesday. It’s the Western Conference playoffs! I have an event I can’t get out of, so they’re all yours if you want them.
I already know Soledad and Yasmen won’t be able to fly off to Cali in the middle of the week with their commitments. They’d be my first choice as plus-ones for this event, but I have a lot of good second ones.
Me: Would love to get out of the city for a night. Send deets to Skipper.
Finally, I come to a new message from the almost-billionaire I’m avoiding.
Maverick: You have a good one, too.
I don’t think his “have a good one” means the same as mine. Mine is a dismissal, a way to shut things down. When Maverick says have a good one, I think he really hopes I do.
CHAPTER 15
MAVERICK
We may not be on home court, but this feels like home.
No matter what arena we’re in, there’s nothing like watching a nail-biter with my father. Even though he’s no longer an assistant coach, he’s still on edge every time the Vipers play. He won’t relax before the buzzer.
“What’s Paulson thinking?” Pop grits out, standing so close to the plexiglass of the luxury suite box his breath fogs it up. “He needs to switch forty-three. He can’t guard August West, and that boy’s gonna drain threes all night if we let him get hot.”
It’s great seeing my father reinvigorated in a way he hasn’t been since we lost my mother. Losing her was the earthquake that shook and destroyed his foundation. At first he didn’t even try to dig himself out from under the rubble. With the possibility of me owning the team he’s devoted so much of his life to, it seems like he’s finally starting to reemerge.
Improbably, the Vipers are in the Western Conference playoffs, thanks mainly to the president of basketball operations, who came to my father on the low seeking advice the last few years. He followed Pop’s recommendations on a new head coach, how to take advantage of a few high-draft picks and trades in the offseason. The results? Vegas Vipers versus the San Diego Waves in a franchise-defining series.
I’m definitely tuned into the game, but I have a broader agenda tonight. Being here in this box is a strategic show of intention and strength to Andy Carverson, the current majority owner of the Vipers and part of the good ol’ boy network that blocked my father’s aspirations at every turn. I’m here to remind him that soon I’ll be calling the shots as the new majority owner. That I—the kid who used to collect dirty towels and pass around Gatorade and do whatever grunt work they found for me—am going to buy the team that has been in his family for decades right from under him.
He’s mismanaged the organization and he’s mismanaged his money. The man is not poor by any means, but the Vipers are now valued in billions, not millions. Publicly, Andy claims he simply wants to free up some of his holdings so he can reallocate funds for his family’s estate planning. Privately, it’s a different story. He’s still worth more than 99 percent of the world’s population will see in a lifetime, but wealth is relative. Tying up this much money is a luxury when there are other investments that could make him more money faster and easier.
I bided my time, getting my finances in order so that when the perfect moment presented itself, I’d be ready. Selling the True Playahs app wasn’t a difficult decision. It was a calculated one that I’d been planning for years. This team, my father’s legacy, was the endgame. And none of the people who stood in his way will stand in mine.