The first time Kenneth Anderson came home with a basketball trophy, he was in 8th grade and the trophy in question was almost as tall as he was. Joan, his mother, immediately asked him where he had gotten it.
“She thought I stole it”he remembers. “She didn’t realize I was becoming someone. »
Kenny, who has two sisters, Sandra and Danielle, was actually considered the neighborhood mogul. His friends nicknamed him “the skinny one” or “Chippy” and he was only called upon when a player was missing.
“Guys always told me, ‘Don’t shoot, just pass the ball.’ I obeyed them. »
“Chippy” learned to pass the ball. And pretty good. At one time, he appeared to be the most talented basketball player in New York since a certain Lew Alcindor, who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. During the summer of 1991, at age 22, he realized his childhood dream when the Nets made him No. 2 in the Draft. No player so small – he measures 1.85 m and 76 kg – has been chosen so high since Isiah Thomas (No. 2 in 1981). In the NBA, small ones are in fashion.
“The speed of Kevin Johnson and the vision of John Stockton”
“He’s the best college playmaker in thirty years”says Marty Blake, recruiting superscout. “He’s a great player”declares for his part Larry Brown, the current coach of the Bobcats who was then officiating in San Antonio. “He combines the speed of Kevin Johnson and the vision of John Stockton. »
Kenny’s story begins in Queens, east of Manhattan and north of Brooklyn. It was there, in LeFrak City, that he was born in October 1970. New York players are marked by their origins. Those from upper Manhattan and the Bronx continually seek penetration. For them, the game is a test of virility. Those in Brooklyn favor outdoor play. This is where Chris Mullin and Bernard King (Anderson’s teammate on the Nets for his last year in the NBA) trained. New York’s great playmakers mostly come from Queens, like the greatest of them, Bob Cousy, the former Boston Celtics superstar. In some ways, all Queens players are alike. They play “responsible”. When Kenny Anderson arrived at Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood in 1985, he was already a budding star. From the first training session, his talent amazed the audience.
“He had been playing for five minutes when he threw a fantastic pass. I’ve never seen a better freshman.”remembers Jack Curran, his coach at the time.
The reputation of the left-handed “point guard” grows with each match. “Sports Illustrated” magazine named him the best sophomore in the United States in 1986. He was the first New York high school student to be selected for the city team four years in a row. Even Lew Alcindor had not managed such a performance. Kenny’s jersey is sent to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He established the high school points record for the entire state of New York: 2,621. A record that would stand for 18 years. In 2004, Sebastian Telfair, another New York prospect who passed through the professional world, erased the mark with Lincoln High School.
For the record, throughout his freshman year, Jack Curran left Kenny Anderson on the bench for the first quarter of games. We appreciate the performance even better… University coaches arrive from all over the country to try to seduce a player invited to the McDonald’s All American and who is overwhelmed with distinctions (Gatorade High School player of the year, player from the State of New York, “Mr. Basketball”, Parade, Naismith and “USA Today” player of the year…).
“The first time I saw Kenny Anderson, he was 16. He was already playing like he was 32”remembers Lou Carnesecca, legendary coach at St. John’s University.
Bobby Cremins, the coach of Georgia Tech, is most pressing. He visited Kenny Anderson more than 40 times. The latter will sign at Georgia Tech for very specific reasons. In the United States, a player can only negotiate with five universities. Kenny therefore makes his selection. He chose Syracuse, North Carolina, Duke, Georgetown and Georgia Tech, sending a message: he would give his preference to the team that allowed him to improvise and create. He eliminates Syracuse because he is afraid of losing his sense of reality by playing in front of 33,000 spectators at the Carrier Dome. Kenny then asks Dean Smith, the Tar Heels coach, if he will be able to run the game as he wishes. Smith’s response is clear. “I prefer that the players give me their comments the day after the match”…
Kenny Anderson could have gone to Georgetown but he didn’t like John Thompson’s methods and his constant player changes. Finally, Duke University eliminated itself by signing point guard Bobby Hurley. Georgia Tech had just hit the jackpot. In the fall of 1989, he wore his new jersey for the first time.
“Kenny is a very humble boy”confides Dennis Scott, his ex-college teammate who was then playing in Orlando. “He is very different from all the New York point guards. He’s not trying to impress. He doesn’t bother dribbling behind his back or between his legs. »
Georgia Tech Mainstay
During his first year, Kenny took Georgia Tech to the College Final Four by breaking the records for points and assists for a freshman in the Atlantic Conference. The Kenny Anderson-Dennis Scott-Brian Oliver trio is renamed “Lethal Weapon 3”. The Yellow Jackets will fall against the eventual champion, UNLV. With the USA team, he won the silver medal at the Goodwill Games and the bronze medal at the Argentine World Cup in 1990. Everything changed during the 1990-91 season. Kenny Anderson runs at 25.9 points at 43%. With Scott and Oliver gone to the NBA, the leader of the Yellow Jackets must face increased pressure. He wants to do too much. Georgia Tech is eliminated by Ohio State in the 2nd round. During the match, Anderson missed 20 out of 28 shots. The poor performance almost cost him dearly. NBA teams are wondering if he can sustain an 82-game season. After two years in the NCAA, Kenny still wants to try his luck. He’s going to the draft. The Charlotte Hornets, who have the first choice, unsurprisingly retain Larry Johnson. The Nets are preparing to choose Billy Owens (Syracuse) but Joe Taub, the owner, intervenes.
“I prefer to look to the future than to see the short term”explains Taub. “You only find a player like Anderson once every ten years. Our team is young and made up of promising players like Derrick Coleman and Drazen Petrovic. We need a leader. Kenny must be the one. »
There are at least 7,000 people who agree with Taub’s choice. Spectators at Madison Square Garden on draft day. They give Anderson a standing ovation when the Nets announce their choice. Both Kenny and his mother cry. The skinny guy has just gained weight. Only, “Chippy” is not New York for nothing… A sort of curse seems to strike the most beautiful gems of the “Big Apple”, from Rod Strickland to Stephon Marbury.
After a difficult rookie season (7 pts over 17 minutes, 39% on shots) which made him the youngest player in the League, Anderson completely explodes. In 1992-93, he scored nearly 17 points (at 43.5%) with 4.1 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.8 interceptions. All this is very promising, especially with a Drazen Petrovic-Derrick Coleman duo which brings in 43 points per game. The Nets enter the playoffs and fall in the first round against Cleveland, like the previous year (3-1 then 3-2).
After Petrovic…
The death of the Croatian guard in June 1993 was a terrible blow, but New Jersey still compiled 45 victories the following year with Kenny Anderson posting 18.8 points and 9.6 assists. The improbable Kevin Edwards, defector from the Heat, tastes a very fleeting glory by having an average season of 14 points. Coleman and Anderson earn an invitation to the All-Star Game in Minneapolis (6 pts, 4 rebounds, 3 pds for the second in 16 minutes). This will be the only selection of the Nets leader.
Followed by a third consecutive elimination in the first round of the playoffs (3-1 against the Knicks). It seems obvious that there is not much to expect from this team, especially when the Nets painfully reached the 30-win mark in 1995. Anderson, who is still close to 10 assists per game (9.4 plus 17.6 pts) when he is not squatting in the infirmary, is transferred the following season to the Hornets against Kendall Gill and Khalid Reeves.
Free agent during the summer of 1996, he decided to join Portland where he contributed 17.5 points and 7.1 assists. He is the Trail Blazers’ leading scorer. With Anderson, the Sheed, Isaiah Rider, Clifford Robinson and Lithuanian pivot Arvydas Sabonis, the roster has some style (and character). But Kenny doesn’t completely convince. The doubts are increasing at the end of a first round of playoffs folded by the Lakers in four matches. And above all, Portland was offered Damon Stoudamire, the Raptors’ top scorer with an average of 19.4 points, the following winter. Anderson (for his part fell to 12.6 pts) was included in the exchange concluded on February 13, 1998. He refused to play in Canada, which earned him a small suspension match.
On February 18, the Raptors shipped him to Boston for Chauncey Billups and three other players. The New Yorker’s career has just stalled. “Chippy” averaged 12 and 14 points for two seasons with the Celtics before playing utility and starting a tour of the United States. From 2002, he will no longer exceed 6.1 points per game… We find him in Seattle, New Orleans, Indiana, Atlanta, the Clippers and even in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 2005. That’s where 2006 ends. a career gradually rotten by injuries. Anderson only played three seasons with 82 games: in 1993-94 in New Jersey, 1996-97 in Portland and 1999-2000 in Boston.
Seven children with five different women
He was also a good client for the celebrity press. From 1994 to 2001, Kenny was married to reality TV show contestant, Tami Roman. At the end of 1998, she filed for divorce, pointing out Kenny’s supposed infidelities. What follows is a bitter legal battle which strips the ex-Nets leader of part of his small fortune. We are talking about half of his assets, to which are added the remainder of a prenuptial agreement ($5.8 million) and a monthly pension of $8,500. In total, Anderson will have seven children with… five different women: Danielle with an ex-girlfriend; Christenese with DJ Spinderella, rapper from the group Salt-N-Pepa; Lyric Chanel and Kenni Lauren with Tami Roman; Ken Jr with his second wife, Tamiyka Lockhart; another Ken Jr and Devin with Sunny Castro (did you follow?).
He doesn’t completely drop out of basketball. We find him at the head of the Atlanta Krunk, a CBA team. In September 2008, he was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame with a few other local stars (Lou Bender, Sam Perkins, Rod Strickland, etc.). Kenny Anderson sets up development camps to help young prospects. These camps also help top college players prepare for the draft.
In 2011, he accepted the position of coach of a basketball team in a Jewish school, and it was again on the sidelines that we found him in 2019. He was a university coach in the NAIA, among the Fisk Bulldogs. Unfortunately, the former Nets and Celtics point guard suffered a stroke three and a half years ago, but he recovered well and was one of the main subjects of a Kevin Durant documentary.
Stats
14 years old
858 matches (693 times starter)
12.6 pts, 3.1 rebounds, 6.1 pds, 1.47 int, 0.1 ct
42.1% on shots, 34.6% on 3 points, 79% on free throws
Prize list
All-Star: 1994
