I played basketball with an ex-convict last week

Not the tax evading sort of ex-con, but someone who went to jail for a violent crime. According to what I overheard, it was robbery and assault. Probably beat someone up and took their money. At ten, if anything you're not allowed in school for a few days. At twenty, you're not allowed in a place that isn't jail for probably more than a few days I'm not sure how long I have better things to do than try to memorize the penal system. And then they are, to the horror of people who tend to vote Republican, allowed back on the streets. But I wasn't scared. I'm afraid of driving on mountains and to a lesser extent the dark, but not of convicted criminals who don't look or act (according to a reasonable person) like they're about to kill somebody. We were both at the courts for the same reason, and that reason was to play basketball.

The first game I played was not with a convicted criminal. Or maybe he was and he just didn't tell anyone within earshot. But if playing terrible basketball is a crime, then I caught him in the act. I won the game by ten points - it was to eleven - and I didn't shoot very well or use a lot of effort. Sitting, watching, and mocking my opponent for being terrible was the subject of my first paragraph. He had next.

If a casual observer looked at the two of us and assumed that my new 1 on 1 opponent was at least a decent athlete, which he was, then the observer would have probably concluded that this game would be as lopsided as the last one but I wouldn't win. I'm about six inches shorter and at least 100 pounds lighter. He is a very good ball handler for his size and whenever he decided to post me up near the basket there was nothing that I could do. But he didn't decide to do that every time, and he didn't play much defense. I made a bunch of three point shots and managed to be the first to eleven points. It wasn't over.

When nothing else is going on, I won't refuse an offer to continue a game. So we kept going. And my shots didn't keep going in quite as much and he took less free throws and dunked more. And 21 points came for him but not for me, and I was willing to concede defeat but after a little bit he offered to keep going. To 31. I accepted the offer and started shooting really well. Well enough to overcome defense from someone who could reach almost as high as I could jump and score 31 points before he did. Which resulted in an immediate request to keep going. Which we did. And my shooting touch cooled off and he finally started making some outside shots and I was way behind by the time he scored his 41st point. At that point I was exhausted and shook hands on a game well played. I lost in the end, but didn't feel defeated at all.