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South Jamaica Street To Be Named After Knicks Legend Anthony Mason

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | February 11, 2016 3:35pm
 Knicks star Anthony Mason died last year after suffering a massive heart attack.
Knicks star Anthony Mason died last year after suffering a massive heart attack.
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QUEENS — A South Jamaica corner where former Knicks forward Anthony Mason grew up will soon be named after the late basketball player, who died last year at the age of 48. 

A stretch of 147th Street, between 123rd Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard, is set to be co-named “Anthony Mason Way,” after the City Council last week approved a proposal to rename 42 streets throughout the city.

Mason, who played with the Knicks from 1991 to 1996, suffered a massive heart attack in February last year and died 2 weeks later. 

“Anthony Mason was a beloved member of the South Jamaica community and the New York Knicks, and it is only appropriate that his career be celebrated,” said City Councilman Ruben Wills, who introduced the co-naming proposal on behalf of Mason's family.

The co-naming, Wills said, will be just one way to honor the late athlete whose relatives also founded the "Family on Three" youth mentoring program, which the councilman said, "will surely leave an enduring legacy." 

Mason, who over his career also played for the Nets, Hornets, Nuggets, Heat and Bucks, won the NBA’s Sixth Man Award with the Knicks in 1995.

He was also known for shaving words into his hair, a habit mentioned in The Beastie Boys' song "B-Boys Makin' With The Freak Freak," which included the line “I get my hair cut correct like Anthony Mason."

Councilman Wills's office said that the date for the official co-naming ceremony has not yet been decided.