Last night at Madison Square Garden, in the waning moments of the Knicks' 94-69 demolition of the Atlanta Hawks, I experienced one of my greatest sports moments ever. Two-thirds of the sellout crowd was already out the door and both teams had cleared their benches. Total garbage time. One of the players trying to make something -- anything -- happen for the Hawks was 6'9" rookie guard DerMarr Johnson. After a solid preseason, Johnson's confidence was crushed after he racked up three fouls in six scoreless minutes in his NBA debut two nights earlier. Trying to redeem himself, DerMarr used a baseline screen, caught an entry pass and banked in a 4-foot jump-hook over Chris Childs. His first ever NBA basket.

But no one noticed. They didn't play Who Let The Dogs Out? or flash MAKE SOME NOISE on the JumboTron. The only two people who clapped were me and Pete Mickael, the Knicks rookie and Johnson's ex-Cincinnati teammate. This moment was important to me because I've known DerMarr since he was 15. After seeing how far he's come with his game and his life, to witness his first hoop was almost indescribable.

I first saw D.J. at a playground in Maryland, where we both grew up. He was dribbling the width of the court, back and forth, trying to perfect his crossover. It was hard not to notice that bounce in his step. An hour before the Knicks-Hawks game, I walk into the Garden and there's D.J., dribbling the width of the court, still trying to get it just right. Still bouncing. I give him a pound, we reminisce and he gets back to his crossover.

In the locker room after the game we talked about the basket and the three he drilled on the very next play, too. He chuckled, still kind of embarrassed that his season hadn't started off the way he had planned. No reporter asked him anything. There was no mention of D.J.'s hoop in the morning papers. But it's one I won't soon forget.

We leave the locker room and run into Larry Johnson. He immediately puts his arm around DJ, whom he'd never met, to lift his spirits. "I see what you're doin' out there, young fella, you're gonna be just fine," says L.J. "You got all the talent in the world, take your time." With that, L.J. winked and went on his way.

DerMarr's face lit up like the kid in the Coke commercial who got Mean Joe Greene's jersey. And just like that, the bounce was back in his step.

Chris Palmer is a writer/reporter at ESPN The Magazine.E-mail him at chris.palmer@espnmag.com.