The thing I love most about professional sports is the mid-season call ups, especially in basketball. This usually occurs when there is an injury and the team tries to fill the position while the player recovers. Usually these guys are journeymen who struggle in minor leagues playing for peanuts, traveling from town to town hoping to get notice from the big boys. Some are guys who are on the cusp talent-wise. Some are there because they need seasoning. They all are there with the dream of getting the call. In the NBA, it’s the 10 day contract, and it’s a big deal. They go from playing in front of a couple of hundred people inside a high school gym of some boondock town to private jets, Four Seasons, and packed arenas in big cities. They get 10 days to impress the team. If they do they could earn another 10 days. Sometimes they even get an offer to stay for the rest of the season. Most of the time the 10 days are as close as they get to their lifelong dream. It’s just part of the job. The player they’re replacing eventually recovers and are back. But once in awhile, a player makes it.
Sundiata Gaines, a rookie who was just signed last week to a 10-day contract with the Utah Jazz and was playing only his fifth NBA game, got an opportunity to do this-
Let’s hope Gaines gets another 10 days.
