To be [beaten, hit] [with, by] [the, an] ugly stick
Contexto
Some of them could flat out play. Luther Innis, five feet tall on his tiptoes, they called Circles. Dribble circles around anybody. Ramsey Wall had a face only his mama could love-if his mama was blind. Boy got hit with an ugly stick. Someone asked why people called him Pretty, you knew they'd never seen his sweet-ass J. That was a long time ago. Twenty, twenty-five years? Pavement's still here, but the basketball hoops are long gone. Ten years back, white people started buying the shot-to-hell houses his friends grew up in and spending all kinds of coin to pretty them up. Turned Cleave Springs into a priority area. Today, while Darnell mows, a crowd of little kids crisscrosses the old basketball court.