"You've Been Traded" Story by Patrick Patterson

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“What’s good?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, nothing.”

The feeling in the room shifted.

“What do you mean?”

“We just traded you to the Kings.”

I didn’t comprehend right away. I paused for what felt like a while, then just blurted out the first thing that popped into my head:

“Who did y’all trade me for?”

“Thomas Robinson.”

I hear a record scratch in my head.

Is this April Fools? Thomas Robinson? No disrespect to him, I understand he was a top-five draft pick, but still, he’s a rookie who hasn’t gotten consistent minutes on a struggling team! I’m a starter averaging career-highs on a team in playoff contention. We’re winning! Are you serious? This is bullshite.
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That December, I flew my parents and one of my best friends to Sacramento and we went to the movie theater to watch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. (Great flick, by the way.) As we pulled up to the theater, my phone started blowing up with texts from friends telling me that I’d been traded. As I walked into the theater to pick up our tickets, my agent called, “Pat, you’ve been traded to Toronto.” To be honest, my first thought was, Damn, it’s cold as shite in Toronto. Then I started thinking about moving to a foreign country with a different culture and an unfamiliar lifestyle. It was a lot to take in..

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