Originally published in SLAM 127
For a while, it was awful.
The first few months after the summer of 2000 were not a pleasant time for Frederic Weis. At first, he didn’t leave his house at all. Then when he finally did, an untied shoelace caused him to bend down. At that exact moment, some kid came out of nowhere and vaulted over him as a classmate excitedly intoned “Il a sauté par-dessus sa tête!” They both broke into gales of laughter. Weis simply stood up and went back inside. When you’re 7-2, you just can’t hide.
But time heals all wounds, and eventually Frederic Weis was able to get on with his life. He avoided YouTube and TNT broadcasts, and started to put his career back together. The NBA was out, of course, but he played for a variety of European teams with varying degrees of success. He played for France again, earning a bronze medal in the 2005 European Championships. When the New York Knicks traded his rights to the Houston Rockets, he even managed to laugh. Progress.
Which brings us to the present day, Weis sitting in his spacious home in the Balearic Islands late on a Saturday night, watching TV. Suddenly he is struck with a desire to see Leverage, the new drama on TNT starring Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton, and changes channels without thinking.
C’est foutu.
