He couldn't stay home for long. It didn't fit his groove anymore. He could never practice or workout here. Not in peace at least. Anytime he went to the gym or even a jog the activity became a spectacle. People wouldn't leave him alone. They probably thought that he was a spoiled athlete who made millions of dollars a year to just sit around and smoke weed in the offseason but that wasn't why he sat inside smoking all day.

His friend who played for 

The Lakers

told Johnny that he had to come live out in 

Calibasas

. Everybody there was so rich and famous that they wouldn't give a shit about an up and coming 

NBA

star. But when he looked into real estate everything was priced out of his range. Not that he couldn't afford to live there, just that he had sacrificed so much to get into the NBA, not so he could be just blowing it all on over priced mansions and meals.

No. Basketball was about money. And he didn't make enough of it to live in a place like Calibasas. Because he never knew when his knee might give. If he were to lose his career right now to an injury, he wouldn't have enough star power to keep making large money afterwards. He still needed about two or three more years of climbing the NBA star ladder -- to his calculation -- to be able to ride it out for the rest of his life. To be able to have enough star power to attract deals and have enough stored away for retirement for him and his cousins. After that, it was all about investing. So no, couldn't live out in Calibasas. It wouldn't allow him to retire his loved ones. Wouldn't leave anything for him to invest. Sure he would be living large, but he didn't care about that.

He looked at the outside of the address he had gotten. He wore a beanie to conceal his dreads and sat in the SUV with tinted windows. He checked one more time to verify the address and also to see if Jasmine had texted him back. She was probably the only thing he liked about being at home... now that his mom was dead. He stared at the entrance to the apartment building... all the doors faced outside like those shitty motels that he used to stay at as a college player. He wondered why anybody would live in such a shit hole. The guy must've been poor he thought.