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year, too, because that one pair of basketball shoes had to last the whole season. There was no wearing them just to profile or hang out in. I couldn’t wear them other than in a basketball game until the end of the season. She doesn’t have to remind me of that time in my life because I’m constantly reminding myself. All I can say is “Wow!” That’s why I said I can’t imagine my life turning out any better than it has.
    I never had any sense, though, that we were doing without. There were no luxuries, but we had everything we needed. The holidays were cool because the three of us knew our mother and grandmother were going to find a way to get you one really nice thing you really wanted. Now my daughter gets ten things. She gets stuff from people who aren’t her family. Kids now get a roomful of things, and you have to wonder how appreciative they are because there’s no sense on their part that these things were difficult to come by, that somebody had to sacrifice to get them.
    My original professional goal was to make $10 million, play in the NBA for ten years, be set for life, and make life better for my mother and grandmother. Remember, when I was coming out of college I had led the SEC in rebounding, but I had only averaged 12 or 13 points a game over the three years I was at Auburn. As hard as they worked, my mother and grandmother saw every game I played in high school and I think they saw every game I played in college, which meant a great deal to me. They’d drive two hours to Auburn to make every game. Even in the NBA, they’d come to about five games a year. My grandmother actually thinks she’s a coach. Kids won’t tell you they like that or they care about it. In fact, I’ve never told them to this day. But I appreciated it. It meant more to me than I can probably ever explain to them.
    I bought my mom a car, though I don’t remember what kind. I bought it before I had even signed a deal with the 76ers. I bought my grandmother a car, I think it was a Lincoln Town Car. I think they’ve been through about four cars apiece since then. After the first one I bought my mother, she came to my room three times that night crying. I bought them both houses, and bought my brothers houses beside them.
    The one thing I would change is that they still look at me as “Little Charles.” It gets to be a problem when people—even your mother and grandmother—don’t want to treat you as the person you are, but as the person they remember. But I’m grateful they’ve been there every step of the way and that they worked so hard and sacrificed so much.

“You’re Always Saying
Stuff That Inflames
People”
    Fighting prejudice is hard. Sometimes I just sit and try to figure out how it came to be in the first place. I don’t have the solution to the problem of racism, because it appears to be a problem in every culture on the damn earth. But I do know where we have to start: by talking about our prejudiced and racist feelings. That’s got to be the first step.
    The hardest but most important thing is to get a dialogue going on racial issues. I think people want to do better, I really do. I just think they’re afraid. They don’t know exactly what to do. Nobody wants to make the first move. Guys figure they might get ostracized by their boys if they open up and talk about this stuff. I just try to create conversation because that’s where I think we have to start. . . . People rarely talk about race until something tragic or ugly happens.
    Once you have some violent situation, where a black person kills a white person, or a white person kills a black person, neither side can talk sensibly or rationally because everybody’s already angry. You can’t talk about it then; it’s too late. When I get together with my white friends, Jewish or Asian friends, I bring up race when we’re doing nothing more than sitting around drinking or sitting around having dinner. That’s a good time for people to talk and