Kenny Anderson Uses Life Story to Inspire Youth

Known as a childhood prodigy throughout his days of growing up in Queens, Kenny Anderson’s life came full circle when he was able to put on a New Jersey Nets jersey after being selected by the team with the second overall pick.

His story however, didn’t end with a heroes welcome to the team that he grew up watching. With the spotlight thrust upon him at an early age, Anderson now finds himself trying to find his rhythm in his post-playing career.

As Anderson tells Nothin’ But Nets, it all began on the basketball courts in his neighborhood.

“My youngest sister used to babysit me a lot and she took me to the court in South Jamaica, Queens and just let me play with the basketball on the court and at that point in my life I was just playing the game for the joy of it with no pressure,” Anderson said.

It wasn’t long before a young Anderson got people talking about his basketball ability and by the time he was in sixth grade, he was already receiving interest from colleges around the country. Despite the pressure that could have entailed, his eventual high school coach curtailed some of the attention.

“When I went to high school, my coach would not give me any of my letters until my junior year. There were thousands of letters in a brown box in his office, but he wouldn’t let me read them.”

Once his junior year rolled around, the floodgates had been opened and seemingly every major college basketball program in the country was beating down his door. This type of attention was nothing new for him, but once again his high school coach stepped up and guided him through the process.

The recruiting process for me was really done very well because I had Jack Curran and he didn’t mess around. I had a great supporting cast that kept the street agents and leeches away from me. I didn’t want the hoopla as much because I was getting so much attention from playing, I just wanted to play and have fun.”

He began to narrow down the field and eventually was left deciding between Duke, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Syracuse. Though it was a tough decision, he chose to head down south to play for the Yellow Jackets.

“I wanted to go to Syracuse because I played there a lot with the Empire State Games and I really looked up to Pearl Washington. Coach Cremins at Georgia Tech was from the Bronx and he really recruited my mother, so I listened to her and signed to go to GT. The more I thought about it, too, the more that I was attracted with how he let his point guards run the offense.”

After scoring 20 points per game and leading the team to the Final Four in his first season, Anderson followed it up by guiding them to another NCAA Tournament bid and upping his scoring average over 25 points per game.

With his strong play in mind, Anderson chose to make the leap to the NBA, a decision that he wavered on initially.

“I really didn’t want to leave school early, I wanted to stay until at least my junior year. My coach told me that I was going to go in the top three of the draft though, and that I needed to enter. Everything lined up well and I knew that I’d be taken high, but if you look into my interviews before the draft you’ll see that it was a very emotional time for me.”

After the Charlotte Hornets took Larry Johnson out of UNLV with the first overall pick, Anderson heard his name called by the New Jersey Nets with the second pick in the 1991 NBA Draft.

“I was really excited that I was going to be home. All of the news reporters that had followed me in high school would be following me in the pros, so it was surreal. In my mind, I thought Sacramento was going to draft me since they recruited me hard. I did not know that New Jersey was going to draft me, so when I heard my name called it was just pure joy.”

The star player on each of the teams that he had played on to that point in his career, Anderson was placed into a new situation in which the Nets already had Mookie Blaylock entrenched as the starting point guard, so he would be forced to come off of the bench.

“After playing so much your entire life, being a backup was a bit tough but it was a blessing in disguise to be able to sit back and learn. I had a good mentor and he just told me to be quiet and say the right things.”

When his second year rolled around, Anderson grabbed the reigns and didn’t look back. Starting every game for the remainder of his career in New Jersey, Anderson was named to the All-Star team in his second full season as a starter.

“It meant the world and at that point it was probably the highlight of the career because I had been voted in by the fans. I really appreciated that they thought that highly of me and showed me that sort of love and it was just a real treat.”

With a roster that at one time featured Anderson along with Drazen Petrovic and Derrick Coleman among others, and a coaching staff with Chuck Daly and a young Rick Carlisle, the team was never able to get over the hump and they regularly hovered around the 40-win mark.

When Petrovic was killed in 1993 and Coleman was traded two years later in 1995, the once-promising Nets roster was depleted. Just months after Coleman was moved to Philadelphia, the team shipped Anderson off to Charlotte.

“I loved the trade to Charlotte. I thought it was a breath of fresh air because of everything that was going on in New Jersey. My welcome was worn out with the Nets, Daly had resigned, Drazen had passed away and DC was traded, so I was ready for a different opportunity.”

A rejuvenated Anderson played well next to Glen Rice and Larry Johnson and was looking forward to his future with the Hornets even though he was a free agent at the end of the season.

Charlotte opted not to re-sign him, however, and he took his talents onto the open market. After much deliberation, he signed with the Portland Trail Blazers and looked forward to yet another new city.

It didn’t take long for the Pacific Northwest to fall in love with him, as he scored over 17 points per game for the team and helped guide them to 49 wins and an appearance in the playoffs.

With Anderson, Arvydas Sabonis, Cliff Robinson, Rasheed Wallace and Jermaine O’Neal, the future looked bright. Despite this, the Trail Blazers blindsided Anderson with a trade to Toronto just a year and a half into his contract.

“I kind of forced my way to Charlotte since I didn’t take a new contract when the Nets offered it, so Portland was my first real trade. I had gotten a great contract and had great numbers but they traded me and I was like, ‘Woah.’ I was hurt and didn’t know what I did wrong.”

Due to tax purposes, Anderson opted not to report to the Raptors and was quickly turned around and dealt to the Boston Celtics. While he had stood out in each of his previous stops, injuries began to wrack up for him.

“The injuries really weren’t too tough for me because I knew that they really believed in me. Rick Pitino was there at the time and the whole organization really stuck with me. They could have traded me, but they stuck with me and I worked extremely hard. I think those was the best times of my life, leading that team and being the point guard.”

Health was finally on his side when the 2001-2002 season rolled around and the Celtics had begun to amass a wealth of talent. With Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker on his wings, Anderson was a major contributor in the team’s surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals.

“It was great because we had a very close team with myself, Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker and a few others, we were balling and winning some close games. It was real positive and the Boston fans were great, it was so exciting and I thought that I had found my niche as a Celtic.”

Less than two months after the buzzer sounded on the Celtics being eliminated by Anderson’s former team, the New Jersey Nets, he was hit with a crushing blow when the team announced that they were trading him to the Seattle SuperSonics.

“I had one more year left before my contract was up in Boston, so I expected to come back and then sign there long-term. That trade to Seattle just killed me and took my passion away. The Portland trade hurt me, but the Boston trade killed me.”

Playing for five teams over the course of the following three years, Anderson had checked out mentally from the game of basketball and couldn’t find the passion for it that had guided him to that point.

Only months after playing in what would wind up being his final NBA appearance, Anderson was hit with the biggest blow of his life. In October of 2005, his mother passed away. Now faced with the passing of his mother and the loss of passion for the game that he had once treasured, Anderson was lost.

“I was in a funk at that time and I was depressed. I never want to have a year like 2005 again because there was just so much getting piled on. My mother had passed away and I was trying to muster up the passion to play basketball again and I just really wasn’t happy anymore. I did everything I could to try to be happy playing basketball but one day I just sat and thought about everything and realized that my mom had seen my whole career and that it was time for me to do something else.”

Anderson has run into a bit of trouble in his post-playing career, but he feels that his story is something that can inspire younger generations. He has spent time coaching and hopes to further pursue that profession.

“I love being in the gym teaching the youth. The NBA guys don’t need me as much as the high school guys do. I still love the game and it seemed like when I retired and got away from playing the joy of teaching got into me. I coached in the CBA before it collapsed and those guys responded to me so well. I coached on the high school level for three or four years and it was great being around the kids and teaching them about things beyond the game.”

In addition to his pursuits as a coach, Anderson also briefly re-ignited his playing career, joining Dennis Rodman and a few other former NBA players on a trip to North Korea.

“Rodman has done some stuff for me and helped me over the years, so when he asked I didn’t really think of all of the political implications or anything like that. I was just trying to be an ambassador to basketball and give back what I had learned over the years and I tried to take it as a basketball experience.”

With all of the unique experiences that he has had over the years, Anderson has chosen to participate in a documentary that will be released later this year that he hopes can inspire children in inner cities that may face some of the obstacles that he has had to overcome.

It’s been a long, winding road for Anderson since his days on the court in South Jamaica, Queens and he hasn’t been perfect, but his story and his knowledge are being put to good use in helping inner city children see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Quick Questions

Why #7?
When I got drafted, I wanted #12 and Tate George had it and I didn’t want to pay him to get it. My idol, Tiny Archibald wore #7 and I decided to stick with it. I tried to wear it wherever I was at. When I went to the Celtics it was awesome because Tiny was #7 as a Celtic.

Who was your favorite player growing up?
My favorite player growing up was Kenny Smith because my mentor was his older brother, Vincent. We lived about two or three buildings away from each other and went to the same high school as me, so he had tons of trophies growing up and I wanted all of those trophies. I wanted to be like him and be better than him. I talk to kids when I’m speaking and motivating them and they know Kenny Smith, but everyone would pick someone else as their favorite player. I looked at him every day I grew up so it was great to see someone just like me in the league.

What was your favorite memory of your time with the Nets?
I loved playing there and I have so many memories because that’s where it all started. I thank Willis Reed who drafted me and I give him a lot of credit for making that decision. Making the All-Star team was great and being named a starter was also a highlight for me. I really think those teams could have been great.

Favorite restaurant in NYC/New Jersey?
My favorite is Quality Meats on Sixth Avenue; I love steak.

Who makes up your all-time starting five?
PG: Kenny Anderson (I want to play), if I can’t then Tiny Archibald or Isaiah Thomas
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Larry Bird
PF: Hakeem Olajuwon
C: Shaquille O’Neal

What advice would you have to top prospects in high school?
I would tell the top prospects that you have to learn. There is a word that you have to learn how to use and that’s ‘No’. You need to work extremely hard on your craft and commit to getting better. Some guys fall in love with the lifestyle that comes with basketball, but you have to fall in love with getting better. If you can be self-disciplined, you can have that lifestyle your entire life. You’ll have a long career and not only that you’ll be able to invest and take care of yourself financially.