Gérard and the conservation of sport

      The sibilant grip of Keds

      on planks, their echo upon

      the humid tiles of scholas-

      tic gyms, and a well-tuned

      bounce of the precisely in-

      flated toy were nothing to

      Gérard, next to the fric-

      ative gasp of the net's de-

      light to disgorge a swish-

      ing dunk. But they were at-

      tuned completely to his

      pleasure. What drove Gé-

      rard to relocate basket-

      ball practice to the lobby

      was certainly not the cold

      comforts of its travertine.

It was, that with its lower baskets and shal-lower court distances, the lobby remedied the absurd eugenic descent of the game into a curiosity shop for hyped extrem-ities, now normalised in favor of everyone's dis-play of its underlying skills: playing fair. 

                  As in his all-nighter in the 

                  loading dock, Gérard's public-

                  spirited gesture was met with 

                  patronising bafflement, at his 

                  chronic maladjustment to decay.