Mr. Chibbs the story of Kenny Anderson
When You think of New York City Basketball and you think of all the Point Guards that have come through this city you start to name a few. You start naming guys like Tiny Archibald, Stephon Marbury, Pearl Washington and Kenny Smith to name a few, but there is always one that always seem to stand out amongst everyone else and that is Kenny Anderson aka Mr Chibbs.
Kenny Anderson was a highly touted Point Guard out of Archbishop Malloy. Photo Courtesy of VillageVoice.com
Kenny Anderson attended Archbishop Malloy HighSchool in Queens where he played for legendary Coach Jack Curran. He played Varsity for four years and was a star and received every accolade known to man when he was in HS, after that he took his talents south where he suited up for Coach Bobby Cremins at Georgia Tech where he helped lead the team to the 1990 Final four. Kenny played two years before declaring for the NBA draft where he went #2 and was drafted by the New Jersey Nets.
With Kenny Anderson at the premier of his documentary Mr. Chibbs.
In the documentary Mr Chibbs you get a chance to see Kenny in rare form. We get to see him at his highest (playing career) and we also get a chance to see him at his lowest point which I think is a valuable portion of this film. Whenever we think of athletes we never think that they go through anything that us “normal” people go through but little do we know they struggle and deal with adversity just like the rest of us. There have been many issue that have occurred during Kenny’s life that have lead to him to behaving and acting the way he did. He had an unstable home life that had him and his mom( His Mom passed away in 2005) bouncing from place to place and he was molested twice as a child. He hid the molestation for many years which is amazing because from the outside looking in you would never be able to tell he had anything like that happen to him but just because he hid it well it did not mean that it did not affect him. That is probably one of the reasons why he relied on alcohol so much during his career.
Kenny Anderson was unstoppable at Georgia Tech. Photo courtesy of Kicksonfire.com
This story is valuable and made sense to talk about to me because of who he is. Kenny Anderson never lived up to the huge expectations that were placed upon him when he entered the NBA but he had a pretty decent career.I still look at him and I am in awe of who he is because when you are a fan of the game your heroes never go out of style and you always look up to them no matter what. I never knew that he carried so many demons with him then ( some he still carries today) because all I knew about was the ball player I saw on TV.. I was able to get a glimpse of a man who has overcome a lot more than the game of basketball could ever present to him. The film shows that it remains a struggle for him on a day to day basis ( he sees a therapist once a week) but it is encouraging to see him putting up a fight to kick those struggles to the side and move on with his life.
With the 2nd overall pick of the 1991 NBA draft the New Jersey Nets selected Anderson. Photo courtesy of Janos.nyc
Kenny Anderson is currently living in Pembroke Pines, Florida with his wife of Ten Years Natasha and His son and her daughter ( He has 8 kids by 5 different women). These days all of the millions that were made in the NBA are gone but he claims to still live a comfortable life. He is focused on helping other kids and wants to become a life coach and a start a mentorship program in order to help other kids that may be facing some of the problems that he faced as a child.