Janay's Full Court Life

Chapter 1

"Alright, babe, I'll see you when you get home."

"Yeah, I'm going to be here for a while longer and you need to get her to bed." Kennedy stirs in my arms at her father's voice and sits up.

"Bye, Daddy." She waves sleepily.

"Bye, Kennedy. Give Daddy a kiss."

Kennedy reaches for her father and, with all of his sweat, clings to him and kisses his cheek. The hallway erupts with "awwww" and camera flashes as the two embrace.

He carefully settles her onto the floor and then leans over to kiss me.

Before he moves too far away I wrap my free hand around his neck and look into his eyes, "See you when you get home."

"See you there."

After another peck Kennedy and I walk hand-in-hand to our bodyguards, Luke, and Aaron. My daughter's tiny little fingers lock around my two larger ones as we walk pass the long line of paparazzi. Her black and white Converse stomp against the ground with each step that she takes, eyes down on her feet. The flashes annoy her and being sleepy only agitates the situation. The truck is not far in the distance so she will be able to knock out in a few more steps.

When we arrive at the truck, I buckle her into her car seat and she lets out a small yawn. She'll be out within minutes. Lights continue to flash as I make my way around the truck and into my seat. The black leather seats are cool, and paired with the air condition, I can't help but relax into the seat. My head rolls lazily to my daughter to see her rubbing her eyes, a telltale sign of her fighting sleep.

"Kennedy, why don't you go to sleep, baby?" I lightly stroke her chubby brown cheek.

"No, Mama." She pouts.

"Of course not." I whisper. What four-year-old likes to admit that they're sleepy?

As we drive home, I think back to the game tonight. I was up and down and screaming and clapping. Nerves and excitement had me bouncing my leg whenever I was seated. The ladies who didn't get as hyped as me and some of the other wives just looked at us and shook their head in amusement. Look, ok, basketball is my all-time favorite sport!

I went to every single high school game and university game and even traveled to other universities when I could to see teams that I followed the stats of. My life turned out to include mixing my favorite sport with the love of my life. He's also my second favorite player in the NBA. There's no fight when it comes to Michael Jordan holding the number one position and my husband knows this and doesn't fight me on it.

As a fan it sucks to see your team lose. Especially if you put money on it. It is an entire different ball game (no pun intended) when you watch your husband's team lose. For one, you don't just turn your TV off and go to bed with a sour face. No, the player that was on that screen sweating and faking moves and running up and down the court walks into your home with feelings and emotions that you took a vow to work with until death do you part.

At times, it's difficult.

Sure they know it's a part of their career, but, they still don't like it and neither do we as their wives. Tonight, we lost. They were on fire all night; they were ahead the entire first three quarters and then at the last quarter, the Celtics just got a fire under them that made the final score 108-105. They played as a team throughout the whole game, at least in my eyes they did.

"Mrs. Court, we're here."

The voice brings my eyes to an open and on my right is my home. Lights illuminate the driveway through the tinted windows.