“I gotta honor this man because he was a big part of New York’s history, ” Anthony Mason Jr says about his late father, former New York Knick, Anthony Mason.
“Not just basketball,” Jr continues. “Just embrace what he did. To climb from the bottom to the top. He influenced a lot of people around here.”
Mase Jr is sitting in front of Cutty’s Hair Studio in Jamaica, Queens, where his father used to go get all those designs shaved into the side of his head. A big mural of Sr is painted around the corner.
Like his father, Jr is all about family. He politely interrupts our interview to give one of his aunts a hug.
When he gets up, his Ewing Concepts catch the glow of the July sun. He’s wearing the colorway that he designed as a tribute to his father. There’s a halo on both the tongue and the heel collar and ‘MASON’ is written across the back.
“We wanted to not be like, ‘Oh, this is your dad and your family name, but we’re going to do everything and put your name on it so here’s what we are doing with it.’ This is your dad, he is one of our favorite players, we are going to give you control of it,” Dave Goldberg, who runs Ewing Athletics, says.
“Now we got shoes,” Mase says, leaning back in his chair. “That shit amazes me.”
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Anthony Mason Jr is Carrying on His Father’s Legacy
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Photos by Joseph Sherman. The Mase x Ewing collab drops on July 29 at Jimmy Jazz (89-45 165th street) in Jamaica, Queens from 4-6.
