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Kemba Walker, Obi Toppin and Taj Gibson putting the New York into the Knicks' name this season

While it may be the celebrities along the front row at Madison Square Garden that make New York seem a special place to play, it is on the playgrounds and high school gyms where basketball has always really taken hold in New York. And as the Knicks ready to embark on a season with a return to capacity at the arena, it is with three disciples of those playgrounds on the roster.

Kemba Walker, Obi Toppin and Taj Gibson all grew up playing on the blacktop outside and in high schools across the city -- Walker in the Bronx, and Toppin and Gibson in Brooklyn (though Gibson played high school ball in Westchester).