He recalls seeing the barrel of a tank from the National Guard pointed at his home during the same riots. “The barrel of the tank swerved around and was aimed right at our house as the troops marched in to secure the West Side of Chicago. This is how I grew up,” Thomas, the former Knicks president and coach and current NBA TV and Turner studio analyst, said during a phone interview this week. “My family and I have been in this fight for freedom and citizenship and equal rights since I was born. I don’t remember anything else.”