The Side Part: Love & Basketball, Kevin Durant and Monica Wright
Kevin Durant plays basketball. Monica Wright plays basketball. Kevin loves Monica. They are getting married.
There was this movie that came out in the 90’s about love and basketball. It was called Love & Basketball. The female character’s name was Monica Wright.
Head explosions.
What follows is a remixed version of the prom scene from that movie. We’ll also just assume that some of their NBA and WNBA colleagues are around for this prom. Let’s get fictional.
Also, you should listen to Zapp and Roger while you read this. If you don’t want to do that, at least listen to Maxwell.
* * *
Monica Wright’s in a plastic chair next to a table covered in purple and gold. There’s two tiny lamps there. Some white balloons. Half empty yellow solo cups of punch. On the wall behind her is more gold. Streamers and ribbons and whatever that stuff is that you put in Easter baskets. She’s in a white dress and some pearls and she’s trying to look comfortable, her arm on the back of the chair next to her.
Kevin Durant’s approaching, shirty shiny like a star, glittery as the makeup room at a pageant. His gold necklace catches the light every so often and it pings about the room, catching eyes like it’s a net and they’re all fish already on the line. He’s shaved three lines in his hair on the side of his head and he’s smiling.
“Hey,” he says.
She looks him up and down and quickly moves her eyes elsewhere. She’s not going to let him know she’s interested.
“Hey,” she says.
“You having fun?” he asks.
“Yep,” she says.
“Yea,” he says, “The DJ is fresh.”
He lets that sit for a beat or two, nodding away, then asks what he came to ask.
“Yo,” he says, “Who’s this clown?”
She smiles.
“He ain’t Spalding,” she says.
He laughs.
“I guess not,” he says.
She’s smiling. Then she realizes she’s mad at him.
“So you took Skylar, huh?” she asks.
“It was late,” he says, “She asked. I mean…”
Off in the distance, the DJ, Roy Hibbert, has the first little bit of “I Want To Be Your Man” twinkling out of the speakers.
This is when Tyson Chandler appears, golden dress shirt shining like something resembling the son of the sun. His beard is powerful and black and perfect and he’s flashing his dimples like they’re weapons. He places his hand on the back of her chair and leans down to her level.
“You wanna dance?” Chandler asks.
She looks up to him and smiles wide.
“Sure,” she says.
Hey lady
Let me tell you why
I can’t live my life without you
Durant’s face has dropped its smile, leaving it over by the table she just left with a plate of uneaten egg rolls and some cake that doesn’t taste enough like Funfetti. He plays it off like it doesn’t bother him, nodding some more and telling himself some alternate version of “So, it’s like that then?”.
Chandler’s got his arm tight around her waist and he’s showing her off, walking her as slowly as he can to the dance floor. They walk past Candace Parker and Shelden Williams fighting about whether or not Shelden can have another piece of cake.
“It’s one slice, Candace,” says Williams.
“Please, Shelden,” she says, “Tell it to the wall, alright?”
Near the food table stands Metta World Peace and Reggie Evans. Metta’s pontificating.
“Reg, lemme speak some truth upon you, my good bromey,” says Peace, “You really think the government doesn’t have aliens living among us? Truly? You really think that. You really think that we’re alone in this galaxy? Our government, who I know for a fact has sent a human as far as Saturn, has farms of these aliens off in the Mojave, man. Whole big troughs of them. They build them special skin suits and teach them English and then send them to live among us, man. There’s twelve extra terrestrials in here right now, dude. Mark it down.”
When they get to the middle of the room, Chandler turns to Monica and she puts her hands around his neck as he puts his around her waist.
This is when Durant shows up with Skylar Diggins. He holds her close and they move with Zapp and they move with Roger and for a moment both Monica and Kevin lean in to their dates and forget about the other.
Every time I see you walking by I cannot breath
You don’t notice me, but in time you will.
That is when Monica’s eye starts to wander. So, too, does Durant’s. She looks to him across the crowded dance floor of slowly swaying bodies and he looks back. He needs to tell her.
I must make you understand.
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
They think about each other in those moments and how they want to be dancing with the other. Then she snaps out of it and tries to bring herself back to Tyson. Her eyes leave Durant’s gaze and she puts her head on Chandler’s golden shoulder. Durant, then, comes to and pulls Skylar closer and the four of them sway once more.
Better not pass me by
‘Cause if you do
You’ll lose a good thing
Oh, baby
‘Cause what I have to say
Is sealed with a kiss
And a wedding ring
Wedding ring
This is when Durant’s eyes begin to drift back to Monica’s and the wanting turns into needing. He doesn’t know why he’s here with Skylar. People expected it, that’s about it. No other reason than that. That girl dancing over there, though, that earth angel, the one in the heaven white dress, that’s the one he should be with. The disco ball shines and glistens above them and dots fall on their faces and the dance floor and the room spins as slowly as the kids that are swaying within it. Durant leans off of Skylar and puts her hands in his.
“I’m sorry, Skylar” he says, “I can’t do this anymore.”
With that he drops her hands and walks toward Monica. She’s been watching up until he started walking her way. She pretends to put her head on Tyson’s shoulder once more.
Outside, cigarette in hand, Metta continues his explanations to Reggie.
“Have you ever actually seen a dog talk?” he asks, “I’m not talking bout barking when you say ‘speak’, but truly carry on a full conversation. My family used to vacation in upstate New York at this RV park called Paradise Found. I’d go wander the woods during the day and I made friends with this beagle dog who told me his name was Alfa. We would hang out all day and talk about art, fashion, music. He’s the reason I still won’t buy my girl any Donna Karan. She’s not from here, man.”
In the room the music’s running through Monica’s hair and Durant’s still moving toward her.
My mind is blind at times
I can’t see anyone but you
And those other girls don’t matter
No, they can’t spoil my view
Durant taps Monica on her back and she turns to see him.
“What is this, Kev?” asks Tyson.
“Sorry, Tyson,” says Durant, “But I can’t watch her dance with someone else any longer.”
Durant holds out his hand in front of hers and asks her to take it with his eyes. The room slows down around her and he’s all she sees.
“Sorry it took me so long,” he says, “Dance with me?”
She looks to a frowning, confused Tyson and then looks back to Durant. His smile is kind and chill, no longer the shell of a guy trying to be just a little too cool for her. Back to Tyson she looks.
“I’m sorry, Tyson,” she says.
She grabs Durant’s hand and Tyson goes to the bathroom to watch himself cry in the mirror while World Peace and Evans shoot dice and try to tell him that it’s no big deal because they heard the world was ending anyway so who cares.
“I loved her, you guys,” says Chandler.
“Dude,” says Peace, “You don’t even need to worry about all that. I’ve got it on good authority that by the year 2027 we’re all just going to be robots anyway. Shells of our original selves. Like, the only time we’ll go outside is for one hour a day and that’s just because the government said it was okay. All the other hours of the day you’ll be inside working on creating a new species of plant capable of growing taller than Redwoods that stretch up high into the these cities in the sky that the United World Alliance, the governing body in those days, made us build by threatening to cut out the part of our brain that can reason if we try to resist.”
Reggie Evans, wearing a purple shirt and lime green pants, nods vigorously and Tyson shakes his head while tears fall.
Words can never say how I feel
It’s too intense
I tried, I tried, I tried, I tried to tell you how I feel
But I get mixed up
So mixed up
Back on the dance floor nothing else matters. Durant pulls her closer than he’d pulled Skylar, closer than he’s ever pulled anyone, and they dance. He feels her there in those sweet moments when the lights are down and the disco ball twirls and he knows that he’ll marry her. They both smile in each other’s arms while Zapp and Roger repeat the only thing that Durant ever wanted to say to her.
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
Yes, I do, yeah, yeah
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
Wanna be your man
Tyson still cries in the bathroom and Metta stays trying to ease the pain.
“I’m telling you, man,” Peace says, “We won’t even have actual eyes at that point. When you’re born they’ll pluck them out and fit you with these special screens that make everything look like after Neo found out he was the one. We’ll all be forced to wear these Kangol looking hats with Ninimad Schondoflakar, the president of the UWA, on them and every time you pass by one of his statues in the streets you’ll have to bow down and sing all of Pink Floyd’s ‘Welcome to the Machine’. You getting dumped won’t even matter then.”
