Movie tough guy Ving Rhames, who has appeared in memorable films such as Pulp Fiction and Mission: Impossible I, II and III, is insistent that two things be published in this piece and neither has anything to do with his movies due to be released this year. Before we get to the big two, we will mention that Piranha 3-D is scheduled to open in April and Master Harold...and the Boys and Rogue’s Gallery will hit the big screen later in 2010. Now let’s talk some basketball.

What teams do you like?
Last year, I took my son, Freedom, and my daughter, Reignbeau, to their first basketball game. It was the Lakers playing against the Hornets. The wonderful thing is Chris Paul took a photo with my son when they were warming up. Of course, my son loves Kobe because he’s in L.A., but Chris Paul was the first professional basketball player at my son’s first game to take a photo with him, so Chris Paul has become a favorite.

You’re originally from New York City. When NYC people move to Los Angeles, they go to Lakers games, but their hearts are always with the Knicks.
I’m an old Knicks fan. I’m not necessarily a Lakers fan, because after the Lakers traded Shaq that kind of really disappointed me. I was a Shaq fan. I do want Shaq to get another ring with LeBron.

Who are your favorite players?
For me as an old school guy, Shaq plays ball the old way when basically the center was very dominant. Shaq is a power player. There are two things I’m going to say and please put this in the magazine. First, the greatest basketball player of all time is not Michael Jordan. I always ask people if you’re starting a basketball team and you could pick one player throughout the whole history of basketball, would you choose Michael Jordan? I wouldn’t. I’d choose Magic Johnson above Michael Jordan. Magic Johnson really made everyone better. Second, I have to go with Wilt Chamberlain above Bill Russell and anybody else. Then I have to look at Oscar Robertson, a man who almost averaged a triple-double for a whole season I believe. Then if I look at this generation, I have to say LeBron James, who may become the first player closest to averaging a triple-double in “modern times.”

You grew up in Harlem and played in legendary Rucker Park. How were you both a jock and an actor growing up?
My thing was I played basketball like everybody in Harlem plays basketball. I’ll just say God led me to a youth center across the street from where I lived, the 126th Street Youth Center. A guy named Charlie Jenkins had poetry classes there. I went into poetry class because the girls were going there and I was following the girls. That’s when I got introduced to Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin. Then I went to Performing Arts High School and from there I went to college at the Juilliard School and graduated. For me, I almost want to say God had his hand on my life. I didn’t choose acting, God chose me to act.

From the January/February, 2010 issue