FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. _ The cry pierced the black silence inside apartment 229G, waking Dennis Smith Sr.
How could it not? The Smith family's second-floor confines at Tera Gardens, a Section 8 complex, measured 1,000 square feet. Dennis Sr. was the sole parent, a reality that Dennis Jr. and sister De'Aira couldn't yet comprehend.
"I want my momma!" came the cry from Dennis Jr.'s bedroom.
Yes, being a single parent was difficult, Dennis Sr., now 47, recalls, but that still-vivid episode was one of the few times he felt helpless.
"Junior didn't know where she was at," he says "I didn't know where she was at, so I didn't know how to give her to him."
Dennis Sr. is sitting in the living room of his spacious rental home in north Fayetteville, in North Carolina's Sandhills. His neighborhood, framed by majestic pine trees, is a mere 2.2 miles yet a world away from Tera Gardens.
On Dennis Sr.'s wall-mounted TV is a paused image from Dennis Jr.'s introduction-to-Dallas news conference as the Mavericks' No. 9 overall draft pick.
And sitting on a sofa a few feet away is Dennis Jr. in the flesh _ Junior, as he's known here _ placidly listening to this brief discussion about his mother, Helena.
"I didn't grow up with any mom," Junior says, politely. When asked what happened to her, he says, "That's a story for another day."
At present, what matters to Mavericks fans is 19-year-old Junior's mesmerizing basketball skill and freakish athleticism.
The Mavericks barely concealed their glee upon drafting him, immediately anointing the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder as their present and future point guard and potential franchise torch recipient from Dirk Nowitzki.
Despite suffering a torn ACL that cost him his senior season at Trinity Christian School, Junior earned ACC Freshman of Year honors during his only season at North Carolina State, along the way becoming a YouTube sensation with his knifing drives, 48-inch vertical leap and tomahawk slams.
By way of personal introduction, however, there is something Junior wants Mavericks fans to know. Already, they might have noticed that he sometimes refers to himself in third person. And when he does, he always includes the "Jr."
There is a reason he does so, a profoundly personal one, and it's why he will insist that "Jr." be included with his name on the back of his No. 1 Mavericks jersey.
"It's just appreciating who I am," he says. "I know that everything that has happened to this point happened because of my dad, who raised us by himself.
"Him being Dennis Smith Sr., he did this. He basically put me in this position to have the life that I have now. I've got to appreciate being Dennis Smith Jr. It means a lot."
