Ivan Hurts His Knee

Today, The Great Plotnik played ball like the tired, old dog he is. He has noticed, as well, that the more poorly he plays, the louder he shoots off his mouth. Sadly, during one exchange of pleasant basketbally love taps, Plot flew off the handle and cursed his friend Ivan.

Ivan got in Plottie's face, saying stuff like "I never curse you, why are you disrespecting me?" and Plotnik immediately felt bad, apologized, diffused the problem and he and Ivan slapped palms and it was all forgotten.

Except that the very next time down the court, Ivan went to catch a pass and his left knee blew out. Nobody touched him, it just happened -- he grabbed his knee, screamed in pain and lay on the court until we could pick him up and move him to the bench.

Eventually, he limped to his motorcycle and was last seen trying to get on it -- nobody could drive him home because he didn't want to leave his motorcycle parked on the street.

The result is Plotnik now feels very guilty about somehow having contributed to that knee. Maybe Ivan was running even harder than usual to show that he, you know, respect, something silly, whatever. Guys always play harder after they think they've been taken too lightly. Ivan kept saying: "I've got three kids. I can't be hurt. I can't not work."

He drives a truck and delivers beer and sodas -- in other words, he is on his feet all day. No work, no money.

Ahhhhhh, shoot. We're all worried about the same thing. Ivan's probably only 30 or so. Hope it's not too serious.