The Mis-Education of Noah Baldwin (2027 - ???)

[chosenone58]

Fun matchup. Looking forward to the next meeting.

We got three more times. Hopefully, New York can pull off one.

[chosenone58]

No Apologies

Derek Baldwin makes his way into his condo. It was mostly dark except for the light in the foyer. He could faintly hear the sound of his wife talking to someone. He assumed she was on the phone since he could only hear her voice. He got closer to the bedroom and he could see that she was on the phone as she walked around the room getting ready for bed. She was wearing sweats, which he found odd because he figured he’d be in for a little victory celebration after tonight’s performance. He hangs out in the hallway to listen to half of the conversation.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Jordan feels bad.” She laughs. “Okay, well, I do too. I know it’s just a game, but still. It was ridiculous.” She laughs again. “Yes, you can have two loaves of lavender bread. Sure, we can meet up sometime this week. I’m sure the kids would love it. ”

She must have been talking to Noah. Derek cleared his throat to announce himself. She quickly ended the call and confirmed the caller.

“Talk to you later, Noah. Yes, it’s a date.”

He leaned over to give his wife a kiss and she turned her cheek toward him before climbing into the bed.

“Wow.”

“Derek, that game was ridiculous.”

“Babe, I played the game how I play it. I don’t see a face. I see a ball player. He got a dunk on me too.”

“But that whole thing after the foul?”

“I was in my zone. I was feeling it.”

“Well, you better hold on to that feeling because you won’t be feeling anything else tonight.” She turns over and faces away from him.

“You’re kidding.”

His wife didn’t respond.

“Damn, it’s like that? I know you got a soft spot for Noah, but he’s a grown ass man. You want me to play down? Tell my guys to back off? How would that look? His teammates needed to step up. He played well. He had almost as many points as me. If it wasn’t for him and Chet, it would have been a hell of a lot worse. Saramago’s big ass was a waste of space tonight. Shareef cooked him.”

Naya looked over her shoulder and scoffed.

“It’s not my fault. And I’m not gonna let you make me feel bad.” He walked into the bathroom to take a shower. He looked down at his phone to see if Noah had responded to his text. No response, but he had been left “On Read” for over an hour.

################

The next day, the team boarded a flight to Denver to take on Kiyan Anthony and the Denver Nuggets. Joe Hood took a seat next to him. Derek and Joe have been friends since Joe was drafted by the Knicks in 2014. Once Baldwin was named head coach of the Nets, one of the first things he did was sign Joe Hood during free agency.

“You really stuck it to Noah last night, huh?”

“Come on, man. Not you too?”

“What do you mean?”

“My wife already got on me about my “behavior” or whatever last night. I thought we were here to get wins.”

“No, I feel you on that, but he is getting trashed on social media right now.”

Derek pulls out his phone and looks at a few post about last night’s game. One post in particular has the pic of him taunting his nephew after a foul was called, as he still managed to make the basket. This must’ve been what Naya was talking about, he thought to himself. He didn’t even remember the play if he was being honest.

“Damn.”

“I know you got your legacy and shit to protect, but damn, D.”

He scrolled some more and saw that ESPN had posted Noah’s post-game press conference.

“I texted him afterwards to tell him good game since I couldn’t find him before I left the arena. My message is still on read.”

“I’d leave your ass on read too if you played against me like that.”

“It wasn’t like I dropped 88 points on him or anything.” He joked. Referring to the time that he scored his career high 88 points against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden in 2019.

“Well, maybe he can use the loss as fuel, Joe. I know what it’s like. I lost a huge game to the Knicks during my rookie season, man. And that pushed me to be the player that I am today.”

“I remember that. But that wasn’t family.”

“I’m not apologizing and I’m not taking it easy.”

“Not asking you to, Cap. I would never do that.”

“We’re chasing ring number four and we gotta let these teams know what time it is. Nobody is safe.”

“I feel you. Just try reaching out to the kid again with more than just a 'good game', okay?”

“Y’all trippin.”

Just as Joe was going back to his seat, Carmelo Anthony boarded the plane.

“Hey, Killer. Hope you don’t beat up on my son too bad tomorrow night,” he said laughing.

He flipped Carmelo off, which caused him to laugh even harder.

Everybody is trippin. I play the game with no apologies, he thought to himself.

[chosenone58]

[The JZA]

In the words of Antoine Dodson, "hide your kids"

Derek Baldwin out here like:

[Agent]

Unc not only beat him but sounds like humiliated him in the process the revenge game gonna be sweet but I still think Derek sons him again

[chosenone58]

In the words of Antoine Dodson, "hide your kids"

Derek Baldwin out here like:

Once you step inside those 4 lines, that's it

Unc not only beat him but sounds like humiliated him in the process the revenge game gonna be sweet but I still think Derek sons him again

Derek was just playing the game the way he plays it.

[chosenone58]

[chosenone58]

No Further Questions

Ever since that loss to the Nets a few nights ago, I have dreaded talking to the media, especially with the two close losses that followed. If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t expect us to beat Brooklyn, but I didn’t expect us to go out like that. We got trashed. That was our worse loss of the season. I’ve loss to Uncle D before, but it’ll be just the two of us or a group of guys just hooping, you know. This was in front of all of New York City and the whole world. It’s different, it was a moment for me to show who I was and the squad just bombed. I didn’t want to shake hands with anybody after it was over. I was on the bench for the last two minutes because Coach Silas knew it was nothing I could do to bring us back. As soon as the buzzer sounded I headed off the court. I tried not to blow up in the locker room after the game, but I knew the guys could tell I was disappointed. The only person who spoke to me after a quick shower that night was Remy and that’s because we go way back.

“You know you gotta do some press after this, right?”

I looked over at our PR guy, Jerry, standing by the door. He quickly looked away when I caught him looking in my direction. “Yeah, Remy, but I don’t want to. All they’re gonna wanna talk about is how big of a fucking loss this was. How my uncle embarrassed the hell out of me out there. I don’t wanna talk about that.”

“Treat it like any other game.”

“Dude, I’ve never lost a game by thirty points before in my life!”

“I have. And the shit ain’t fun. But you did your thing out there. You held your own. Sure, he burned you a couple times, but it wasn’t all bad. These are the three time champion Brooklyn Nets. They got three MVPs on their team! These guys rarely have an off night.”

Ryan Russell came over to my locker and stood in front of me.

“We stunk the place up tonight. And I know it probably feels worse for you because it’s family on the other side, but let this motivate you for when we have to cross the bridge later this season. Alright? Do your press. Make it brief. You already know what they wanna talk about it, try to keep it light.”

He gave me a pat on the shoulder and grabbed his bag and headed out of the locker room.

Coach Silas was the next to come over.

“You played well. You know that’s not why I pulled you.”

“I hear you, Coach.”

“I mean it. We got beat up on the inside. They scored damn near one hundred points in the paint.”

“Yeah and it was their guards getting all those points.”

“You weren’t the only one defending out there. And when we switched you to Derek he wasn’t able to score as much. He only scored ten points on you specifically. He had like thirty tonight. You played well. Short term memory. We have a lot of ball left to play.”

I just nod my head. I know he’s right, but the shit still sucks. “Can somebody email me that film from tonight?”

He quickly began typing on his phone. “Done and done. Take it easy. Don’t stress about this.”

I nod again and pull my gray Ralph Lauren sweater over my head and grab my gray Ralph Lauren beanie. I look at the door, and I see Jerry tapping his watch. I may as well get this over with.

He hands me a bottle of Glacier Cherry Gatorade and tries to quickly go over what the reporters are going to ask about as I make my way to the room. But I already know and I’m as ready as I can be.

I take my seat and open my Gatorade as I wait for the first question.

“Tough loss tonight, Noah. How’s the locker room after this?”

I look at him for a second before I answer. “Well, the locker room is the locker room. Nobody is exactly celebrating at the moment. So, quiet, Thomas. I’d say the locker room is quiet.”

There’s a female reporter on the other side of the room, so I turn my attention toward her.

“How did it feel playing against your uncle and future Hall of Famer, Derek Baldwin? Were there any nerves at all?”

“I’m always a little nervous before any game. I’m always nervous when I play in front of him because I want him to be proud of me, so this was like times ten because I was playing against him and I wanted to do well. I wanted the team to do well.”

I started to turn away, but she said she had a follow up.

“And with the outcome being a thirty-one point loss, how do you think your uncle feels about your performance?”

“Not sure. You’d have to ask him. He hasn’t come in yet? Next question.”

I was starting to get pissed off. I signal to a reporter in the back of the room.

“You mentioned being nervous. Would you attribute your four turnovers to that nervousness?”

“Yeah, you could. I think it got to a point where I was forcing stuff. Stuff that I usually get past other teams and it wasn’t working against them tonight. Got a lot of length on that team. They’re very tough defensively.”

I hear Jerry call for last question. It goes to the reporter down in front, Marina Shelton. I didn’t even notice her sitting there. I smile a little, she’s been one of my favorite reporters since college.

“When did you sneak here, Marina? What you got for me?”

“Hey, Noah. How are you going to use this loss going forward?”

“Motivation. Simple as that.”

Despite my individual production, we haven’t been getting it done on the floor. I needed to start making good on that statement for the team, especially with a big game against Philadelphia coming up.

[chosenone58]

[mvp]

This is strong. Some of those losses looked like the offense forgot to show up.

What game is this on again?