Before he was handing out gifts to local Milwaukee families, Michael Redd was an eager kid waiting for Christmas to come. (Getty)

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December 24, 2007

Desmond Mason:

"The one I was thinking about with this holiday season coming up was one when I was about 10 years old. Me and my brother and sister and dad and mom were all together. We got remote-control cars and a football.

"We went outside and were playing. We had a building across the street with a parking lot, so we were out driving the cars around and playing with the football. We broke our cars, and I kicked the football onto the roof of the building. We couldn't get it down because it was a holiday and the building was closed.

"My dad took the cars from us, the football was gone, so I don't know if it was a good Christmas or not. I was left with some candy canes, some cards and some little toys; it wasn't like having remote-control cars, though. We got the football back when everybody came back to work after the holidays."

Awvee Storey:

"My years at Arizona State, and those with my family. Before basketball got to where it is now, I was growing up in Chicago, spending time with my family, my godparents. Then once I got to college, I had a great network of friends and spent a lot of time with them and boosters and so on. Being in Arizona on Christmas Day and coming outside with a tank top on, it was great.

"Unfortunately, our season goes through the holidays, so I won't be able to be home for Christmas, but it works out. You have some time to see your family. I'm thankful to have a job. If I was at home for the holidays, I'd be out of work. So I'm happy that it's like this. I count my blessings, always."

Michael Redd:

"I always looked forward to Christmas, and just being with my family, man. As a kid, I looked forward to that excitement of Christmas, and knowing that Santa Claus was coming and bringing something you really wanted. Those were the best of times.

"Now I'm really looking forward to having that with my son. We got the little Baby's First Christmas stockings for him ... that's special, man. We got some ornaments and some gifts, too. He may not comprehend it all this year, but next year he probably will. He's outgrowing some of his first toys, so he'll be getting some new ones. He's already got the Michael Redd jerseys, whether they fit him or not. They cover his whole body. He's got the home and road jerseys."

Charlie Bell:

"I don't know; maybe the first record player I got. I got about three records with it, and I was downstairs in my basement playing music all day after I got those. I remember the first three I got were Heavy D, Cool Mo D, and L.L. Cool J. They're still my favorite rappers. L.L. Cool J really turned me on to it all. I was probably 11 or 12 years old at the time. As far as my favorite Christmas goes, that was all it."

David Noel:

"I didn't have too many when I was younger. But one recent one, probably, was a gift that me and my sisters got for my mother, a couple of years back. It was a portrait of us together with my nephew. She loved it to death because she'd always wanted a picture of us, so it was a very sentimental gift for her.

"Probably the one for me, when I was younger, was I wanted these shoes -- I think they were Deion Sanders -- and I wanted these shoes so bad. My family would draw names, and we'd wait until later on to give people gifts. I ran downstairs and opened my gifts, and I didn't get the shoes I wanted, so I was kind of mad. But I came to find out that my mother had drawn my name, and she held off on giving me the shoes until later that day. When she did, I was so excited. I felt kind of bad for getting mad, but it was one of the best memories I could have had."

Royal Ivey:

"Probably one of my favorite Christmas memories was the year that Sega Genesis came out. I was probably in sixth or seventh grade. They had a game called Michael Jackson Moonwalker. We were having Christmas in Massachusetts with my grandparents. I happened to get one with the game, so I was elated. That was one of my favorite moments. I stayed on that game for pretty much the whole break, playing Genesis. Those were the days."

Jake Voskuhl:

"When I was growing up, my parents always had a bunch of people over to our house on Christmas. It was always a big social gathering for everybody. I always looked forward to Christmas because a bunch of our friends would come over. I've got two brothers, so there are five of us in our family, but our family's friends would start coming over around 1 o'clock and there would always be a houseful of people. We did it every single year at Christmas, and it was always fun. We had a giant side yard. We'd be in our backyard playing basketball, and we had a trampoline. I guess one of our big games was trampoline basketball. That was like the big game at our house. Everyone would get together and we'd get up there and go at it."

Mo Williams:

"I really don't have one, to be honest. All of them have been great. My first Milwaukee one was pretty good. All my family was here, like always. It was snowing, and my family, being from Mississippi, always loved that."