Sometimes, grown ass men have to do things that don’t want to do.
Season 1 of Survivor’s Remorse highlighted Cam Calloway’s journey from the hood in Boston to NBA stardom. His cousin Reggie, as his manager, worked out a major free agent deal in Atlanta. His adjustments to the high life continues in the season 2 premiere.
Bigger houses, bigger paychecks, and contractual obligations made for an interesting, yet hilarious opening episode to the season.
Cam and his family moved into a new mansion in Buckhead, thanks to M-Chuck and her ratchet ways. Who knew that throwing lawn chairs off of condo roofs could result in a need to upgrade your housing (complete with their own house manager)? While surveying their new living arrangements, Cam complains about his mandatory attendance at a team charity event. Reggie reminds him that for 25 calendar days out of the year, his presence is requested by the owner Jimmy Flaherty to make the team look good, or else he gets fined 50k. Cam has no interest in going bowling (he’s bugging btw, bowling is dope), as he’d rather concentrate his time on actual basketball activities. He goes to the event at the request of Reggie and his family, and (to him) his worst fears are realized.
Cam is surrounded the whole event by drunken season ticket holders, who either request pictures (while confusing him for other players), give him tips to get better, or request that he lectures their family members on the dangers of drug use. Flaherty calls Cam over with a two finger wave, and that was the final straw. Cam leaves the event pissed and wants nothing to do with activities that doesn’t involve basketball.
Reggie’s wife Missy, ever the Afrocentric conscious sister, smashed a black caricature lawn Gnome left by the previous owners of Cam’s new mansion. She gets into a conversation at the hair salon with M-Chuck and Cassie about perming their hair to conform to European beauty standards. M-Chuck reminds her that the “big chop” could lead to months of tears and struggle, regardless of the payoff. Missy decides to cut her hair and immediately regrets her decision.
Cam reiterates throughout the episode that he’s a “Grown Ass Man” and won’t be patronized by anyone, especially an owner who thinks he actually owns him. Cam goes into full primadonna mode at a basketball signing when he refused to sign all of them, while signing the last ball specifically for Flaherty labelled “Indentured Servant”
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Flaherty showed his disapproval for Cam’s slight at the bowling event and the basketball signing by changing Cam’s parking spot to a handicapped spot! This led to a hilarious exchange between Cam and a Nigerian security guard where cultural differences in opposition to laws made for some good TV. Anyone with parents or family from other countries can relate 100%. Cam furious with this decision, drives to Reggie’s house to demand that he gets the situation fixed. The conversation between Reggie and Flaherty was less than amicable. Flaherty was pissed with Cam insinuating that he was dedicated to impoverished servitude with the team. He told Reggie to make sure Cam was at the Mandela event. Cam of course refused, said “Fuck Mandela (?!)” and stayed home to play FIFA on XBOX 1 (sounds like an acceptable #WashedFridays activity to me). Reggie and the family went to the event in his place, much to the dismay of Cam.
Flaherty, fed up with Cam’s disrespect, went to Cam’s house to confront him on his Mandela event no-show. Cam explains over and over that he’s a Grown Ass Man and doesn’t want to be treated, or spoken to like a child. Flaherty explains to Cam that those charity events show the season ticket holders and investors that they care. Cam doesn’t get paid if people won’t buy into the team. Flaherty also wants to expose Cam to people who can help expand his brand aside from basketball. He dressed in a dashiki not because he wanted to, but because he was asked by the sponsors to do so. Cam can’t take every action by him as an act of disrespect!
Flaherty agrees that he can abide by some requests, but the ultimate decision to attend would be Cam’s. Cam ends up attending the event and Flaherty was pleased, while being apologetic for the lack of oversight with the Mandela event coordination which led to this:
This season started off tense, so let’s see what trouble Cam and the family get into next week!
