But in fairness also to the idea of continuing success, you also have to exploit opportunities.

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.

The NBA wasn't a big deal at that time, so it wasn't really in my career plans.

I was literally fabricated over in France and born about six months after the boat landed at Ellis Island. This was the heart of the Depression. For the first 12 years of my life we lived in a terrible ghetto on the East River.

I had endured six years of frustration so I think winning it all meant more to me than most of the others on the team.

Every jock gets up and tells the world how lucky he is. But I feel that I may be the luckiest one of all in terms of timing and being at the right place at the right moment-even though, for the last 30 years, I was told I was born 20 years too soon, for obvious reasons.

I was the original socially depraved shy ghetto kid.