Potential. It's a word that's thrown around when people think you can do something great, be it in academics, the arts, or sports. Ex-Basketball Player, by John Updike, is a poem about a man named Flick Webb whose wasted potential has led him to a dismal, melancholy life. The narrator is a former fan that portrays Flick as a daydreamer, fantasizing about his glory days.
             The first stanza sets the present setting. Flick is working on and off at a gas station just a couple blocks from his former high school, which relates to the whole "living in the past" theme. The street Pearl Avenue symbolizes Flick's life, it runs past the high school and then is "cut off Before it has a chance to go two blocks." This symbolizes Flick because his career was cut short; also, the street is called Pearl Street, which is funny seeing as pearls are considered to be pretty valuable.
             The second and fifth stanzas emphasize on the fact that Flick often spends his time fantasizing about being in the spotlight. In the second stanza, Updike describes Flick as he's "stand[ing] tall among the idiot pumps- Five on a side[.]" this is clearly a reference to his old basketball days, when he was the star player; and in the line "one is squat, without A head at all-more of a football type," Updike is describing Flick hanging out with his former Jock friends. In the fifth stanza, Updike shows that even in his personal time, all he does is fantasize. This time he's hanging out at Mae's luncheonette where he's "just nod[ding]... toward bright applauding tiers Of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads." The point Updike is trying to get across is that Flick lives in the past because his present basically sucks.
             The third and fourth stanzas contrast Flick in high school and present-day Flick. In the third stanza, Flick is portrayed as a basketball hero. Updike writes, "He was good: in ...