Friends, Fans And Family Pay Final Respects To Knicks Great Anthony Mason
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Funeral services were held Friday for former Knicks basketball star Anthony Mason – known to many as a local kid who made good.
Mason, who suffered a heart attack last month, died Saturday at 48 years old.
As CBS2's Scott Rapoport reported, famous faces in the basketball world those in attendance as Mason's memorial service in Queens Friday. They remembered the kid from Queens who made it big at Madison Square Garden.
"He's going to be missed," said former Knicks great John Starks. "He's going to be missed."
Starks, Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, and former Knicks Coach Pat Riley were among the large group of friends, fans and family who turned out to pay their last respects to Mason at the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, Queens.
Mason had been hospitalized for congestive heart failure three weeks before he died. It was sad and ironic indeed, according to those who knew him, because Anthony Mason was all heart.
"He came from the playgrounds of New York and went on and made himself a self-made basketball player," Starks said.
At 6 feet 7 inches tall and, 240 pounds, Mason's bruising, blue-collar, do-whatever-it-takes-to-win style of play came to personify the gritty Knicks of the mid-1990s, which had the Garden rocking nightly.
The Knicks even came within one game of the NBA championship in 1994.
Mason said last year on WFAN radio that he would have welcomed an opportunity to work with the current team: "We imposed our will. We were going to make it hard on you. We were going to be up in your face the whole game and we wanted you to know that. People dreaded coming into the Garden, and that's the thing you want to get back to."
Former Coach Riley spoke at Mason's funeral service.
"He had something that was special and unique, and not many players had it -- competitive desire to win," Riley said.
Mason was a local guy -- raised largely in Springfield Gardens, Queens. He played high school basketball there before making it to the big time.
Neighborhood resident Yvette Stone said that made him a hero to the locals.
"Well, he's a star," Stone said. "He's the star of the community."
Mason went on to a 13-year NBA career -- five of those with the Knicks. He played with the Knicks from 1991 until 1996, winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1995.
He had a style of his own for his scalp, with his buzzworthy hair creations, and athletically, with his trademark intensity.
"Anthony Mason is a great tribute to New York, and a great tribute to his family," Riley said.
Mason leaves behind his 90-year-old mother Mary, and two sons, both of whom played college basketball.
In recent years, Mason had worked in the insurance business. He will be buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, Queens.
