Knicks assistant general manager Allan Houston lost more than a sports icon when Muhammad Ali died late Friday night. Houston lost a neighbor.
Houston paid tribute to Ali — a fellow former Louisville, Ky., resident who lost his long bout with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 74.
Houston grew up on the same block as the Clay family. The former Cassius Clay, according to an MSG Network documentary, showed up at Houston’s 2-year-old birthday party in 1973. Ali had a broken jaw after a slugfest with Ken Norton.
“It was pretty much wired shut,’’ Houston’s father, Wade Houston, told MSG Network in the documentary.