(2/11) “I still have the stub for the first Knicks game I ever...

(2/11) “I still have the stub for the first Knicks game I ever went to. I was ten years old. We blew out the Miami Heat that night, and I was hooked. I decided then that I was going to be the biggest Knicks fan in the entire world. Not the second biggest. The biggest. Every Monday morning in my 5th Grade class we did something called class news. Kids would stand up and talk about their weekend, but not me. I always gave The Knicks Report. I loved everything about the team: the uniform, the Garden, the announcer. But I especially loved John Starks. I had his poster on my wall. I wore a wristband just like him. I pounded my chest like him every time I hit a three. I wanted to be John Starks. He was the closest thing I had to a hero. And he was raised by his grandparents, just like me. I never knew my dad. Didn’t even know his name, the birth certificate was blank. And my mom was living in the city, wilding out on drugs. My grandparents loved the shit out of me, I will say that. They did a phenomenal job of shielding me from what was really going on. When my mom wouldn’t pick up the fucking phone, they’d cover for her. They’d say: ‘Don’t worry Anthony, you have us.’ It wasn’t until I was fourteen that I really saw it up close. One day my mom invited me into the city to go shopping with her. Holy shit, I was excited. There weren’t any cell phones back then, so I just showed up at her apartment: knock, knock, knock. After a minute my mom opens the door. She’s slurring her words. She can barely stand up. She looks me right in the eye and says: ‘Who are you?’ I say: ‘Mom, it’s me. Your son. Anthony.’ Then she says: ‘I don’t know you.’ And closes the fucking door. Oh my God, it destroyed me. That day broke my heart. But here’s the thing, that was right around the time Gianna was conceived. It was a miracle if you think about it. My mom is almost 40 years old. She’s doing heroin ten times a day. It should never have happened. But she calls me four months later, out of the blue. She says: ‘Guess what? You’re going to have a little sister.’ I knew right then. Before I even met G, I knew. I was going to be the best big brother in the world. Not the second best. The best.”