To tip-off the NBA’s 2011-2012 season opener, New York Knicks All-Star forward, Carmelo Anthony, delivered his hometown the most cherished gift of them all on Christmas Day– a win against the Boston Celtics.

Anthony saved his Christmas gift until the fourth quarter for the star studded crowd at Madison Square Garden. With native New Yorkers; Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg nervously cheering on, Melo matched the Celtics point total in the final period, scoring 17 on his way to a game-high 37 points, as New York rallied late to defeat Boston 106-104 on Sunday.

Melo, who played his first opening day as a Knick, led New York’s offensive attack, scoring 17 points in an explosive first half before he landed in foul trouble at the start of the third. With Anthony sitting and Knicks’ All-Star power forward Amar’e Stoudemire (21 points) under duress by Celtics’ newcomer Brandon Bass (20 points, 11 rebounds), the Rajon Rondo (31 points, 13 assists) led Celtics rebounded from an early 17-point deficit to carry a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

New York tied the score at 100-100 late in the final period on consecutive 3-pointers by starting point guard Tony Douglas (19 points) and Anthony. The score was tied again at 102 and 104 before Anthony put New York ahead with two decisive free throws with 16.3 seconds left. Boston had two opportunities to win the game or tie the score to force the game into overtime, but failed to capitalize. First, Celtics’ guard Marquis Daniels missed a corner 3-pointer before veteran power-forward Kevin Garnett bricked a jumper off an inbounds play with 3.9 seconds remaining. Newly acquired Knicks’ center Tyson Chandler, who was a part of the NBA champions Dallas Mavericks last season, rebounded Garnett’s missed shot and heaved the basketball towards the Garden rafters, as the celebrity crowd at MSG burst into merriment.

Garnett attempted to play the Grinch who stole New York’s Christmas, but instead settled for league bully, as he jawed and later struck Knicks’ forward Bill Walker in the face with an open hand, after the buzzer. A former MVP and 14-time All-Star, Garnett was clearly frustrated in Boston’s defeat, as the Celtics won all eight games between the two teams last season, swept the Knicks in the first-round of the playoffs, and have dominated the Atlantic Division since 2007, when the Big Three (Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Garnett) were united. With the absence of Pierce on Sunday, who is out due to a bruised right heel, New York’s new frontcourt of Melo, STAT and Chandler proved to be too much for the Celtics to handle. Allen contributed 20 points but was hounded by the Knicks’ second-year two guard Landry Fields for most of the afternoon. And when Anthony erupted in the fourth to rescue his team from a season opening defeat, the Celtic had no answer to stop the charge.

The Celtics’ depleted roster, which lost Shaquille O’Neal to retirement, Jeff Green to a heart condition, and Glen “Big Baby” Davis to the Orlando Magic, will have to figure out a way to add more production before Tuesday’s match up against the LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and the defending Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat. Rondo ignited Boston’s offense to keep the Celtics in the game, but his high-level play wasn’t enough against the Knicks. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Rondo joined Larry Bird (2/18/1985) as the only Celtics players with 30 plus points, 10 plus assists and 5 plus steals in a single game.

For the first time in over a decade, New York has an opportunity to be contenders in the East. The Knicks will travel to the West Coast on Tuesday to play three games in four nights, against the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. They will have to suit up without rookie sensation Iman Shumpert, who suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his Knicks debut. He’s expected to be out two to four weeks. With injuries to newly acquired guards Mike Bibby (sore back) and Baron Davis (herniated disk), STAT and Melo will try to survive this lockout-shortened season.

At the 46:10 mark in Bill Cunningham New York, the 2010 documentary that profiles the revered New York Times fashion photographer, Cunningham stands in the middle of a black-tie benefit dinner snapping away at upper crust New York socialites. This is, of course, typical for the photog who covers the often intersecting worlds of fashion and high society but what’s interesting about this scene in particular is the unexpected cameo by one Kaseem ”Swizz Beatz” Dean at the bottom of the screen just right of center. If you only know Swizz Beatz as the producer behind hits for artists like DMX and JAY Z, seeing his face among all the gray hair, pale skin and old money might seem odd, but despite his name there’s much more to the 33-year-old than just beats.

Swizz’s growing list of titles outside the realm of music is as impressive as his discography: Global Creative Director for Reebok, VP of Design Lotus North America and shoe designer Christian Louboutin collaborator are just a few. “You know I got the rights to [produce Jean Michel] Basquiat apparel and footwear?” asks Swizz. “Me and Basquiat’s dad sat down and thought it was about time we educate today’s youth about who he is because they’re hearing [the name] Basquiat in raps.” In the past few years Swizz has emerged as a sought-after consultant in the world of luxury good and a passionate, if not unlikely, patron of the arts in hip-hop.

On an unseasonably balmy fall day in New York City a suited Swizz stands smoking a cigar on the tenth story balcony outside of an office at Jungle City Studios, his base of operations. The studio and creative space is located in Manhattan’s Chelsea section in an area better known for its galleries than as the stomping grounds of hip-hop’s elite class. The studio’s location is indicative the headspace he’s in these days. For years now Swizz has been pushing art appreciation hip-hop; setting an example as a collector himself, name-checking artists like Warhol and Basquiat in his music before it was en vogue, and giving gifts of artwork to peers like Diddy and Lil’ Wayne.

“I fell in love with the art world when I fell in love with the South Bronx which was day one—my little borough [in] my little hood [on] Jackson Avenue,” he says looking at the hazy New York City skyline. “What first got me was when I used to sit down in the park and wait for my grandfather to take me to Third Avenue or wherever we were going, I used to sit there and look at the trains.” In awe of the whole cars and entire trains painted by the daring graf artists of the day, Swizz was inspired to pick up a sketch pad and try his own hand at art. The distractions of a career in music took him away from his first love but success brought him back. “I was able to get my first house at 19 and I was decorating my place and I was like ‘Man, I want to put some art on my walls.’ I ended up spending money on a lot of BS pieces but then I met a lot of people in the mix who became my mentors.” Slowly but surely, Swizz Beatz the Ruff Ryder became Swizz the pop art collector and fine art aficionado. Along the way art world luminaries like Jeffery Dietch, Tony Shafrazi, Peter Max and the late Ernie Barnes became both friends and mentors and Swizz got back into creating art himself. “I do mixed media,” he says nodding through the glass window at an unfinished piece of his on the floor of the office. “This one’s called ’Young Brazil,’ I want to put the photos on the artwork because there’s something 3D about it that I like and I love diamond dust so I used the diamond dust on it I used acrylic paint so it’s fairly simple but I love it.”

Swizz’s love for art goes beyond simply creating it as a hobby as he reveals that he’s in process of opening his own gallery to showcase the talents of artists he’s discovered in his own travels around the globe. “I want my gallery to be for young up and coming artists from around the world that people wouldn’t easily discover” he says. “I feel like I found the new[Andy] Warhol in Japan, the new [Takashi] Murakami in Hong Kong—not to compare their work so much but as far as [their] thinking outside of the box. I found a couple of sick artists in Africa, in Mexico too.”

Swizz’s lofty goals and aspirations aren’t about showing off as much as they are about opening people’s mind to possibilities and exposing those who come from his culture to new ideas and the finer things in life—the concept of Black Excellence at its core. “That’s what I’m here to do—I wanna inspire. That’s why I do so many things; I want to be the Renaissance Man of our generation, that’s my goal. That’s why I do so many things from philanthropic work, to my schools to designing to just showing people you don’t gotta just be a producer, you don’t gotta just be a rapper, you don’t just gotta be a DJ.” In this light his signature catchphrase takes on a different meaning: When it comes to being an example what a young man from the ‘hood can accomplish if he sets his mind to it for Swizz it is always, showtime.