Chapter Fifteen - Posterized

In the morning, they ordered coffee from room service and sipped it on the Lanai. Raven said “I guess I should tell you something before this thing gets any further along.”

“Oh boy.” Rudy said warily. No good conversation ever started out this way. She was about to tell him that she had a boyfriend who was out of town somewhere..

“I mean, it’s not a big deal, but I want to be straight with you.” She was blushing. “When you showed up to look at the car that day?”

“Yeah...?”

“I knew who you were.”

“You did?”

You were a senior in college when I was a sophomore, right?”

“Sounds about right.” he said, still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Hawaii and Utah were both in the Western Athletic Conference back then and I went to the game when the Ute’s were here. I watched you play and you were terrific. You tore us up. And you were so cute. I had a huge crush on you and I, well, I kinda followed your career after that.”

“No way!” Rudy exclaimed, disbelieving.

“So anyway, I just thought you should know that I’m really just a groupie.” She said with a smile. “I tried to follow your career into the NBA but then you just sort of disappeared. Last thing I remember seeing on you was the... oh never mind.”

“The poster?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She answered sheepishly. She hadn’t meant to mention it but it sort of slipped out.

“Shit.” He said. All these years later it still got his goat. “The poster. The damn poster!”

Every NBA player lives in fear of being “posterized” and Rudy had been; big time. It happened against Nate “Tiny” Archibald when the Clippers played the Celtics a month into the 1980-81 season.

He was actually having a pretty good game against the NBA’s leading assist maker, holding Archibald below his average in both assists and scoring. Thus far in his rookie season Rudy had been struggling to compete at the NBA level. It seemed like everyone in the league was bigger and faster and stronger. Ironically, in this particular game, he was beginning to believe that he could compete in the NBA after all.

It was a close game and it was deadlocked in the final seconds. Archibald had the ball and Rudy was guarding him. Rudy wouldn’t normally be in the game at this stage but the Clippers starting point guard was injured and since Rudy had been playing so well, the coach left him in for the finish.

After a time out, Archibald brought the ball up court and Rudy stayed tight on him: too tight, a rookie mistake. With the clock winding down, Archibald crossed the center line and put a hand on Rudy near the top of the key, giving him a slight, nearly imperceptible shove. Rudy fell back a half step but recovered quickly and went up to block the shot as Archibald skyed for the jumper.

It seemed to Rudy like he leapt higher than he ever had in his life but he was that half-step out of position. It was just enough for Archibald to nail the winning shot over Rudy’s outstretched fingertips.

The buzzer sounded, the crowd erupted and Rudy went running after the officials shouting “He pushed me! He pushed me!” His teammates grabbed him and ushered him into the locker room.

The next morning a shot of Archibald hitting the game winner over Rudy was on the front page of the Sports sections in both the LA and Boston papers. The picture showed Rudy’s outstretched hand as close to touching the ball without actually touching it as possible, which is what made picture so dramatic.

A month later a huge, glossy poster of the shot was released. It became the biggest selling NBA poster of the year and the biggest humiliation of Rudy’s life.

He was a laughing stock in the Clippers locker room. His teammates called him “Poster Boy” and it was the straw that broke his already shaky confidence and will to succeed in the NBA.

A month later he was released by the Clippers and, with no suitors beating down his door, his NBA dreams crumbled. Eventually he came to believe that he would have made it in the NBA if he hadn’t been posterized, though the painful truth was that he’d never gotten another chance to find out for certain.

He finished the season in the Italian League. He’d already developed a pretty serious reputation for partying in Los Angeles and his cocaine use only increased in Italy. At the end of the season, he checked into rehab and finally arrived home in Utah three months later, broke and broken.

“You know”, Rudy said, “Archibald’s nickname was ‘Tiny’ but he was 6’1”. He had five inches on me and I still almost got to that shot.” God that sounded like a pathetic excuse.

Raven felt awful for bringing it up. She could see from the look on his face that the memory was nearly as painful now as when it had happened a decade ago,

She went on, hoping that her gaffe wouldn’t spoil the moment. “Anyway, when I opened my door and you were standing there, I couldn’t believe it. When you left that day, I screamed, I literally screamed like a silly Junior High girl! I just couldn’t believe Rudy Davis had just left my house.”

“Really?” Rudy asked. “You seemed so calm and cool. You wanna know the truth, you intimidated the shit out of me. I couldn’t believe it when you called to invite me to the luau. I mean, I’m not the screaming type.” He teased. “But I’m sure I would have screamed if I was. I still can’t figure out why you’re wasting your time with an unemployed wanna be like me.”

“You’re no wanna be,” she said. “I have a sixth sense about these things and I know you’re on your way to great things.”

“I wish I had your confidence. I mean, let’s be honest here, you’re way out of my league.” He said with a completely straight face.

She climbed onto his lap and put her arms around his neck. “Well, Junior, maybe you just got called up to The Bigs.” She said before showering him with kisses.

Molokai no ka oi.