Gemini Chaos

My grandfather would have loved these Knicks.

My grandfather, or Prof. Chao as most other people called him, loved basketball. As a physical education professor at Queensborough Community College he coached and refereed a number of sports, including volleyball, badminton, swimming, tennis and tai chi, but he was a basketball player in college in China, before the Chinese civil war led him to move to Taiwan.

My dad—his son—wasn’t around for most of my life, but we lived with my grandfather in his home so he was the father I never had. I was also his only grandchild for almost 10 years. My childhood is made up of memories of him waking me up to get ready for school, taking me with him to teach his classes at QCC, teaching me to swim (and making me swim laps, and “drown proofing” me by making me take deep-water survival tests), bringing me to the beach every weekend of every summer, and taking me with him on his travels. When he had spare moments he’d load his trunk with tennis rackets and balls and take me to practice my serve, or take me to the Taiwanese Cultural Center to try my hand at table tennis (I truly sucked at that).

In hindsight, I think to any extent I grew up a tomboy it was because of him. I vividly remember the day in maybe first or second grade that my school offered a menu of extracurricular activities—I initially chose dance, and when he found out he shouted, “DANCING IS FOR SISSIES!” The impressionable and adoring kid I was, I promptly switched my choice to karate (and loved it).

Between the ages of 7 and 13 you could not catch me in anything remotely girly unless it was for a special occasion. In fact I remember I had to wear a dress to my sixth grade graduation, and my brother, who was only three at the time, burst into my room, saw me in the dress, and exclaimed, “Eeeeeeew! You look like a girl!” I always had to be dressed to play basketball. I played no matter the weather, at every recess and opportunity I had at school. I also played violin, and to my mother’s dismay on multiple occasions before important performances or auditions I would jam a finger on the court. I joined the team in junior high school (I won’t claim I was good—got cut in 9th grade).

When I wasn’t in school or at practice my grandfather had me doing drills in the backyard. And in 1998, when we hosted the Good Will Games at Madison Square Garden, he hosted the Chinese national team, brought me in to meet them, had me welcome the crowd to MSG in Chinese, and got me an opportunity to shoot the one and only shot I ever took in the arena. I missed. lol

My cousin followed in my grandfather’s footsteps and became a volleyball player (!!) but no one else in the family ever really got into basketball, so it was kind of our thing. We moved out of his house when I was 14, and it was hard to watch NBA games because my mom didn’t get cable, but I’d still listen to Knicks games on the radio if I couldn’t watch, and read about the games in the paper. When we saw each other each week his otherwise serious face would light up talking about the games from the week. We couldn’t afford to go to the Garden but eventually when I started working, I tried to snag deals for us to go to Jersey to watch the Knicks play the Nets.

Like so many of us, my grandfather loved a good story behind a team, behind a player. He loved to see the rise of a gifted athlete or team, in any sport, especially if they worked for it—so he would have loved these Knicks. But he passed away in the fall of 2021, weeks after his 96th birthday and not long before Jalen Brunson joined the Knicks. I know he would have loved to see this team build, little by little.

He would have loved the squad we have today, he would have loved to see them progress each season to get closer and closer to winning the chip, and oh my god—he would have loved to be screaming for joy last night when OG Anunoby tipped the ball in. Now that I can afford to, I wish I could have taken him to any of these post season games and shared these moments for him. I know he would have been as giddy as I am.