Page 80 of Bro Code

He took off the headphones and went after her to the section of seats reserved for management, where the GM, Coach Myers, and assistant coach sat with their heads together, talking in low voices. Louis sat beside Holly, pulse racing and stomach doing flip-flops.

They knew. They knew he’d been skimming Riley’s data.

The GM leaned back in his seat with a brief, tight smile and addressed Holly as she sat. “So where are we on the biomechanics?”

Holly cleared her throat. “Still haven’t been able to pin down exactly what’s causing the issue, but prior to the incident against Tampa, Webb’s metrics did seem to be improving. We haven’t been able to determine if that was a fluke, or an indication that the physical therapy is working.”

Louis breathed an internal sigh of relief. They weren’t here to fire him for secretly using Riley’s data: they were just discussing Riley’s performance. He kept his mouth shut and furrowed his brow to show he was listening.

“So what happened last night? said the GM.

“We’re not sure,” said Holly, “but we think–”

“Because we can’t afford another performance like that.”

“Right, we’re well aware–”

“Are you serious?” Louis blurted. He stared at the GM as Holly looked at him in surprise. Louis leaned in, lowering his voice. “He just spent a week recovering from a concussion. You don’t think he needs a few games to get back into the swing of things?”

“We don’t typically expect it to take more than a shift or two for that to happen,” said Coach Myers. “His performance last night was far below what we’d expect from a player returning after a minor injury like that.”

“Yes, and the science team is aware of that,” said Holly. “Prior to that, his stats appeared to be trending up. We’re ramping up our efforts to get to the bottom of whatever’s causing this dip.”

“You don’t think he was just shaken up by what Okafor did?” Louis demanded.

Holly’s eyes snapped to his with a look that said she wasn’t seeking his analysis. “He met with the team psychiatrist several times while he was out doing recovery, and was cleared for active rotation.”

He just survived a hate crime! Louis wanted to yell. Do you really not think that has anything to do with this?!

He pressed his lips together and breathed through his nose while he watched Holly pull out her tablet to show the GM and Coach Myers what she’d been looking at. He was so angry he couldn’t even hear what she was saying. Why was he even part of this meeting? They weren’t going to listen to anything he had to say. And since when had Riley met with the psych? Why hadn’t he mentioned that to Louis?

The GM handed Holly back the tablet. Louis tuned back in in time to hear him say, “Because if he hasn’t improved by the last week of this month, we may need to look at offloading him before the roster freeze in December.”

Louis frowned. “Roster freeze?”

Holly locked the tablet and tucked it under her arm. “Of course, no one wants that.”

“The optics would be bad,” said the GM.

“Well, and we all see Riley’s potential,” said Coach Myers. “It would be a shame to have to trade him before we got what we wanted out of him.”

“Woah, wait, what are we talking about here?” said Louis. “You’re trading him?”

“If his stats don’t come up,” said the GM. “He’s costing us vastly more than we anticipated. For a high-profile center with elite talent, sure, but for a guy whose performance continues to slip–”

“But trading him isn’t gonna fix anything!”

“It staunches our cash bleed and makes him someone else’s problem.”

“By December?”

“The league puts a freeze on trades over the holidays to make sure players with families have some stability,” said Coach Myers. “We don’t want guys with wives and kids having to uproot their families over Christmas.”

Oh, how fucking big of you, Louis thought. Wouldn’t want to upset the married cishet breeders!

“So we’d need to find somewhere for Webb to go by December twenty,” said the GM. “The optics would be bad, but at the end of the day the bottom line is the bottom line.” He buttoned his suit jacket as he stood. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I need to use the head.”

Louis sat staring at the seat he’d vacated as he strode off down the aisle in a wake of cologne. Traded? Again? How could they possibly think bouncing Riley to another team was the solution?