Being a New York Knick is awesome.
I used to write "NBA" on the wall when I was seven, eight years old, get in trouble for it, with a crayon.
I had a passion for basketball when I was a baby, and it never stopped.
My cousin played basketball.
My brother played basketball.
My uncles played basketball, football.
Baseball was another sport that my family played.
My father was, you know, a hardworking man.
He was a churchgoing man.
He took us all to church every Sunday.
And he passed away when I was 12 years old.
And that was a tough time for me, to kind of get over that, that hump of not having him around My mom was on the streets.
She was hustling.
We traveled around a lot.
When she had to, you know, run from the police, I mean, we moved from Florida to New York to Atlanta, back to Florida, from living inside a shelter to not really having a place to stay.
Then my younger brother was right there with me, so I had to make sure he was straight, because he watched every move that I'd make, and he implements what I do.
So I think that helped me also to remain focus on the youth, because I had that mindset when I was even, you know, ten, 11, 12 years old.
Yeah, I was playing basketball as long as I can remember, on the playgrounds.
And as I got older, and I realized I'm pretty good at it, and then I started to understand, "You know what?
"This is going to get us out of the hood.
This is going to get us out of poverty."
I told all my friends I was going to get drafted out of high school.
I wrote it down on the walls, wrote it down on the bleachers.
I had a goal in mind, and I was determined to make that happen.
And I did.
It was one of those surreal, surreal moments.
Because I went from a high school player overcoming so many obstacles during my high school career, and then getting drafted into the NBA.
I was at an all-time high at that point.
And the first thing I did was give my mom a hug and a kiss.
And I felt like I finally made it, accomplished my goal as an 18-year-old.
My mother and I have an awesome relationship.
I talk to her about every other day.
If it was up to her, I'd talk to her every hour.
She calls me all the time.
She does a lot of great things right now, too, so she takes her story, and what she'd been through, and teaches young girls that are in her similar situations how to make the right decisions growing up as well.
I got involved with writing children's books because reading is something that I think is very, ver important.
Especially for young boys in poverty.
So I figure if I write a book that has my slang words, has a few of my personal young stories, then that may give the youth to understand, "Well, reading "is not that bad, actually.
"I read that book, and it was fun to read that.
Now I want to read another one."
My daughter, she's a great reader.
She loves to read, you know what I mean?
So when a word that comes up that I fumble over, and she reads it, you know, cleanly, I'm like, "Wait a second."
My kids teach me something every day.
My son, I was introducing the game of chess to him.
And we started playing, and he made a move on me, I was like, "Hold on a second, wait a minute.
"Let me take you a little bit more seriousl on the chess board right now."
My children are pretty smart.
I'm a proud father at this point.
