We lived in Yorkville, which is located on the East End of Manhattan. It's further east than Hell's Kitchen, and back then it was the kind of place where the roaches and cockroaches were big enough to carry away small children.

I grew up in the heart of the Depression.

My family was poor, my father drove a cab for a living, but we felt normal because everybody else was in the same boat.

We hung out on the streets, played stickball, and did all of the things that other kids did.

The MVP award was very satisfying in terms of personal accomplishments, but the championship was the most important thing of all.

French was my first language.

It also didn't take me long to decide that Tri-Cities wasn't for me, and that I wasn't going to go there to play basketball.