Slam!

The Latimer team has had a couple of bad practices in a row, so Slam is hopeful that the team will improve with more practice before their first game. Back at home, Derek asks Slam to sew his pants because he ripped them playing basketball. Derek tells Slam he also wants to play guard for Latimer’s basketball team when he is older. At the team’s next practice, Coach Nipper gets on Slam’s case for being a bad teammate and not working with some of the other players. Coach Goldstein tries to talk to Slam, who feels frustrated and disrespected by Coach Nipper. Goldstein says Nipper wants him to play within the organized system that will benefit the team and goes on to explain that he played when he was younger because he loved the game but was never very good. He reminds Slam that life isn’t always fair but that, instead of thinking about the things that are unfair, Slam should focus on the natural talent he has and how to develop it.

Later that day, a classmate named Karen asks Slam to pose for her, wanting to use his hands to replicate Dürer’s Praying Hands.