Did the war effect your family in any way?

No, it didn’t have any effect.  My father wasn’t drafted or anything like that.  I believe he had a medical exemption.

It seems that your parents instilled a work ethic in you at a very early age.  You cleaned cab windows as a youngster, and later helped out with your father’s dry-cleaning shop (Sunset Cleaners).  Please tell me about Sunset Cleaners and what it was like to work side-by-side with your father in the family business.

 
You have to remember that I was a VIP at George Washington University.  I played basketball for Bill Reinhart, and everyone knew me.  Then I’d come home and help my father with the business.  I worked from ten in the morning until ten at night.  I pressed clothes.  I’d press one-hundred suits a day.  I have no complaints, because work like that keeps you humble.  Hell, I pressed clothes for years after that.  Pressed ‘em after I became famous.  It always reminded me of where I came from.

The New York Celtics were formed in 1915, disbanded during World War I, and re-formed as the Original Celtics in 1918.  As a New Yorker, did you ever see the Original Celtics play?
 
No, this all took place before I was born and then when I was very young.  But course I knew who the Original Celtics were – hell, everyone knew.  They barnstormed all over the place, played games who knows where.  They were what I’d call the first famous basketball team.  People who didn’t know what basketball was learned about it from the Original Celtics.

In 1935 you enrolled in Seth Low Junior college, taking a job with President Roosevelt’s National Youth Administration to help with the cost of tuition.  Is it true that Isaac Asimov was one of your classmates?
 
He went to Seth Low.  I knew Asimov.  He was a bright guy who couldn’t sit still.  He told a lot of jokes.  He’s gone now, but we kept in touch through the years.  My last conversation with him was on the phone about eight years ago.

You met a man named Bill Reinhart, and because of him you went on to finish college at George Washington University.  You were a three year letter winner on the GW basketball team.  Please tell me about Bill Reinhart.  Is there a story about him that you’d like to share – maybe one that hasn’t been shared before?
 
Bill Reinhart was a great man, an innovator.  He was running the fast break before anyone else.  He was also a quiet man, very reserved.  As a coach he was thirty years ahead of his time.  As one of his players I remember his practices, and how tough they were.  Bill never lost his poise – I never saw him lose it.  He was always in control.  He could adapt to any situation and he could talk to a broad range of  people.