GG Deng

John Deng has been the man to beat on the neighbourhood's concrete court since he grew four inches at seventeen. He coaches the neighbourhood children at weekends and referees with a whistle confiscated from one of them; days, he works at a logistics depot, where a Lebanese bookkeeper taught him backgammon. He doubles constantly and he has never once dropped a cube that came back at four, on the grounds that a man who sends it back is telling you he is frightened. A chouette suits him better than any other way of playing for chips, because a man doubling five people at once is doubling five times as often. Everybody in his division knows, several of them allow for it, and he has not adjusted.