AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And your team is going to be out there alongside you, and to a man, they’d say the same thing. They’d agree that you deserve this,” she presses. “Relax. This is your night. Soak it in.”
I smile at her, and though the tightness in my chest eases slightly, it doesn't disappear completely. Bailey always has a calming effect on me. But not even she can completely erase the unease I feel being in the spotlight. She’s my rock, though, and has been from the start. There isn’t anything I can’t get through with her by my side.
“This is your night,” she tells me again. “Enjoy it.”
“I’ll try.”
We’re standing behind the curtain that blocks off the tunnel from the court where the ceremony is taking place, listening to some of the speeches being given out on the floor. It’s standing-room-only out there with fans crowding the stands. VIP guests, team legends, and my teammates are all out there as well. Tonight, the organization is retiring my number and unveiling the statue they commissioned for placement in the Garden of Champions out in front of the arena.
It’s an enormous honor, but honestly, I could do without all the pomp and circumstance. The organization, though, loves its ceremonies. They love to honor their former players.
After leading the team to four titles in six seasons, I decided it was time to hang them up. I’d accomplished everything I set out to do at the beginning of my career, finishing among the all-time greats in most of the important categories. There didn’t seem to be anything left for me to do.
I likely could have kept it going for another season, maybe two, before the wear and tear finally broke me down, but I decided it was time to leave on my own terms. The last thing I wanted was to be one of those guys who stayed at the party too long. One of those guys who took a little bit of the shine off their legacy because they couldn’t let it go and wound up playing like a shadow of their former selves. I’ve seen it happen far too often and decided that wasn’t going to be me. My legacy would remain intact.
I decided it was time for a new challenge. I also decided it was time to let Bailey have her time in the spotlight—something she richly deserves. She’s transitioned from print journalism to televised media, finally getting a chance to host her own program on ESPN, and she’s been crushing it. Hers is one of the highest-rated programs on the network, and she has become one of the most respected journalists in the profession. And she did it all while juggling my schedule as well as our two little girls at home.
Now, with my retirement, I’m going to focus on being a girl dad. It’s going to be a challenge, for sure, but I will attack it the same way I’ve attacked everything in my life—with everything in me.
Honestly, I’m looking forward to doing nothing more than spending time with my little girls. Watching them grow. I’m looking forward to doing normal things like making lunches, driving them to school, making the life of any boy who shows the slightest bit of interest in them utter hell. I'm looking forward to being a dad.
But more than anything, I’m looking forward to watching how Bailey grows now that she’ll be free and unfettered by my schedule. I’m looking forward to encouraging and supporting her the way she’s encouraged and supported me all these years.
It’s her time to shine, and I can’t wait to see what she does and the new heights she soars to because I know that as good as she is, she’ll only grow and get even better. She's got the same mentality as I do about her job. And now that she has no restrictions, she's going to attack it even harder. She made so many sacrifices for me over the years that I’m excited to do the same for her.
I couldn’t have asked for a better partner. She has so many qualities I admire and so many more I never even knew I wanted in another person. She came along when I wasn’t expecting her to. When I wasn’t even looking for somebody to share my life with. When she came into my life, I had been actively trying to avoid anything romantic in nature. I feared that romantic entanglements would only distract me from my pursuit of greatness. Of basketball immortality.
What I didn’t know at the time Bailey came storming into my life was that she would enhance that pursuit, not distract me from it. Bailey made me brave in ways I never knew I could be. She opened me up in ways I didn’t know I was capable of, which made me not just a better ballplayer but a better man. Bailey made me want to be better. Pushed me to be better and to aim even higher than I already was. She challenged me to be more than I ever thought I could be and gave me a purpose that far exceeded being the best basketball player ever. She made me want to be the best man I could be for her. And for myself.
Bailey is a force of nature. Even though I tried to push her away so many times in those early days, she kept storming right through the barriers I’d constructed and entrenching herself in my life. In my heart. And she did it all without even trying. Things with her just felt so natural from the start that I couldn’t deny it.
Love was never something I’d sought out or planned for. That was a door Bailey kicked in and dragged me through. And now, I can’t imagine my life without her in it. I can’t imagine ever not loving her. She completes the picture of me.
“And now, it’s time to bring him out, the man of the hour…”
Gabe White, my longtime teammate and friend—my brother—is on the mic and, after sharing some of our stories, is giving me an introduction. My stomach flutters and my body is sticky with a sheen of nervous sweat.
“Let’s hear it for six-time champion and future first-ballot Hall of Famer, Ben Givens…”
The curtains pull back and the spotlight shines on me and my family. The applause from the crowd out there is thunderous and feels like it’s shaking the ground beneath our feet. Bailey squeezes my hand and smiles at me. The look of love in those sparkling green eyes that are still so dazzling takes my breath away.
“It’s your night, baby,” she says.
“It’s our night,” I tell her. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you. None of it. I owe you everything.”
She favors me with a smile that makes my heart slam against my ribcage. I will never know what I ever did to deserve someone as incredible as Bailey or something as wonderful as our family, but I’m not going to question it. I’m simply going to take it and run. I’m going to enjoy every second of it from now until the day I hang ‘em up for good.
“I love you,” I tell her.
Bailey blows me a kiss. “And I love you.”
As my heart swells, the realization hits me. I really have had it all. I got the girl and had the career I dreamed of. I’ve had my cake, and I’ve gotten to eat it too. Holding our kids with one hand and each other's hand with the other, Bailey and I step into the bright light shining down on us to the wild and thunderous applause of the crowd.
The End.
