Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301240039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SAM SMITH KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J. LENGTH: Long
ANDERSON SUDDENLY FULFILLS NETS' DREAM
And now to Kenny Anderson on the fast break."I see my teammates ahead of me," Anderson says, "and as I get downcourt I hesitate, slow down a little to disturb the defender, maybe put the ball behind my back or between my legs, you see. I'm making a few more dribbles, and then I'll look away, then a little stall, a hesitation, and I have my defender leaning away and boom! I have my man for the layup."
This is not the stuff one diagrams or writes up in one of those basketball textbooks. What Kenny Anderson does on the basketball floor for the New Jersey Nets only a few ever have done.
Isiah Thomas, Bob Cousy perhaps, Nate Archibald. It's the stuff of highlight tapes and Hall of Famers.
The Nets brought in Maurice Cheeks, one of the game's great point guards over the past 15 years, to provide some veteran inspiration for Anderson. Cheeks smiles as he listened to Anderson discuss passes that left the crowd gasping and teammates with easy baskets in a recent game.
"If I were coming up now," Cheeks said, "I'd just be coming off the bench."
Just a few months into his first full season in the NBA, Kenny Anderson is fulfilling the expectations the Nets had for him when they made him the No. 2 pick in the 1991 draft.
And it is no coincidence that, as the former Georgia Tech star is doing so, the Nets have moved into contention in the Atlantic Division. Their talented young lineup is drawing second looks around the league.
Larry Bird, now scouting for the Celtics, recently called center Sam Bowie the best passing center in the league; guard Drazen Petrovic has emerged as perhaps the league's best pure shooter; power forward Derrick Coleman remains on the brink of stardom, and small forward Chris Morris is showing the talent that made him the fourth pick in the 1988 draft.
"He's a better player night in and out than Coleman," former Nets coach Bill Fitch says of Morris.
And while Chuck Daly is getting credit for taming this wild bunch that was feuding openly with Fitch last season, it has been the emergence of Anderson that has made the Nets a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference.
"He's going to be a great player in the league," Cavaliers guard Mark Price says. Price knows, for Anderson burned him for 48 points and 20 assists in two Nets victories over the Cavaliers.
Then there was a 25 points and seven assists against John Stockton, a second triple-double late last month against Charlotte and 31 points in chewing up San Antonio.
"He's the type of player worth paying the price of admission to come to see," Bowie says of Anderson.
But just a year ago, Anderson, the slightly built left-hander Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson likens to a new-age Thomas, almost had to pay admission to see the games. He was so far down Fitch's bench and so deep in the veteran coach's doghouse he was able to do little with the few bones of playing time he received.
"It was tough sitting," says Anderson, 22, who challenged Fitch's decision to stay with Mookie Blaylock. "I knew I could play, but people were saying there was something wrong and they didn't know what it was."
Anderson, recipient of a $3 million-per-year contract after a holdout that lasted into the first week of the season, averaged seven points and three assists and shot 39 percent as a rookie. He seemed further away from displacing Blaylock as the season progressed, barely playing as the Nets almost upset the Cavaliers in the playoffs.
Critics said the bumbling Nets again had erred in the draft, and Fitch resigned under pressure. The Nets were looking for a pearl from the draft oyster. However, it looked as if they had gotten another Pearl Washington.
The pressure, which caused Anderson to lose hair in blotches as a sophomore All-American at Georgia Tech about to enter the NBA draft, seemingly had gotten to him.
Funny thing, though.
"The first letter I received from a player was from Kenny," Fitch says. "He never blamed me. Last year, he wasn't in shape, he missed training camp and we had Mookie coming into his own. I think he eventually understood."
After being the top high school player in the nation in New York and averaging 23 points in two seasons at Georgia Tech, his rookie NBA season was a harsh lesson in life's realities for Anderson. However, it also provided an opportunity for him to examine his own perspectives.
"I'd forgotten for a while about my mother's lessons," Anderson says, "about appreciating what you have. I'm getting to play NBA basketball. I have the talent, I'm living my dream, so there's no reason to complain.
"I'm getting paid a lot of money, and I'm taking care of my family, so why mess that up with controversies, having people say I'm selfish. Sometimes it's not only about basketball. It's about life and living. And I wasn't going to let the fun get out of it."
With that, basketball life turned around for Anderson.
Daly, whom assistant Brendan Suhr says is to point guards what Bill Walsh is to quarterbacks, was hired. Then Blaylock was traded for Rumeal Robinson. Suddenly, the Nets did not have a suitable backup for Anderson.
So he has averaged about 37 minutes this season, which Daly admits is a little too much for Anderson's 6-foot, 165-pound body. That explains his 44 percent shooting after being nearly a 40 percent 3-point shooter in college.
"He needs to develop physically," Daly says, "but there's only so much you can do now. He only has 6 percent body fat."
But Daly also marvels at what he has, something of a cross between Thomas and Vinnie Johnson - and a kid who began to remind observers of a real pearl, Earl "the Pearl" Monroe.
"He has a true point-guard mentality, although he doesn't have the leadership qualities Isiah has," Daly says. "But he is feisty and competitive and not as volatile, which makes it easier. He's just more reserved.
"But he has the ability to handle the ball like it's on a string and can go anywhere on the court he wants. And he's not a good passer, he's a great passer. He also plays like Vinnie in that he'll go after the shots he misses. And he's 22, remember."
And ready to do what few ever have.
"Now I'm starting to play like a franchise point guard," Anderson says. "I want to become one of the best point guards ever to play the game. I'm working and learning, and I think it's within my reach."