Someone painted a rectangle the size of a ping pong table on the edge of a basketball court. A line was painted across the middle where the net would've been, and Rock was about to play an important game against Jim Brown in front of a large audience. Brown is considered by many to have been the greatest football player ever. He is 79, but, at 6-2, 235, still appeared to Rock as menacing as he was in the 1960s when he bulldozed his way to thousand-yard seasons year after year as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns.
Rock served first and took a 3-0 lead. A split second after he served for the the fourth time, the paddle slipped from his hand and fell to floor, but Rock kept his eye on the ball and clearly saw it land an inch or two over the line before it spun back to his side of the court.
"I lead four zero," Rock said.
"No way," Brown said. "It hit your side first."
"No it didn't. It landed at least a couple of inches on your side."
Brown looked angry. He seethed as he whispered, "It...never...crossed...the line."
"OK, your point," Rock said. "I'm serving 3-1."
Brown won the next point and then smashed his first three serves so hard and fast that Rock had little chance to react. He whiffed on all of them.
After the match ended, Rock and a friend looked at Brown's side of the boundary and were unsurprised to see piles of dirt on each side, deposited from the ruts Brown had dug up as he slammed shots past Rock.
"I don't know how I scored those three points," Rock said.
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