Rowan Kavner
This new weekly series from Clippers.com features a Q&A with Clippers players, coaches, alumni or those tied somehow to the Clippers’ organization. Considering Derek Anderson’s story, the first edition went significantly longer than 24 seconds.
LOS ANGELES – Type “Derek Anderson” into any search engine, and the first few options are probably all for the NFL quarterback.
If everyone knew former NBA player Derek Anderson’s story, that wouldn’t be the case.
The title for “Most Interesting Man in the World” might already be taken by the Dos Equis guy, but Anderson, the author/screenwriter/hotel owner/former NBA player, could give him a run for the label.
And it’s not even the titles that make Anderson so interesting. He played 11 seasons in the league, including one with the Clippers, but his NBA life is just a minute part of his personal journey.
Anderson was abandoned in an empty apartment by his mother when he was 10 years old. He had a child at 14 and was a single dad by 15. Not only did he drop any understandable animosity after learning to find his own way, but he actually went searching for those same parents who left him to fend for himself.
That’s led to a book, a movie and an incredible story. He talked candidly and in detail about how it all began:
Did you know what you were going to do after you finished basketball?
DA: “Yeah, I did. I did everything while I was playing. I connected with people, I knew that this was just my part-time job, not my lifetime career. I was setting up while I was playing for my career… A lot of guys just played a lot of great careers and then after they were done tried to figure it out. I started my company my first year in the league.”
You own a hotel in Turks and Caicos. You also wrote a book called “Stamina,” which is pretty self-explanatory given your journey from where you began to today. What’s your day-to-day like now?
DA: “Basically, I still do my hotels, but now I do movies. I wrote one book, I do motivational speaking and I write movie scripts. I sit at home, work and network and connect with other people and their business.”
What inspired you to do all that?
DA: “What inspired me to write the book was I met my mother for the first time in 24 years. When I met her, it inspired me to write a book about forgiveness, about me being abandoned. She left me in an empty apartment at 10 years old. I had to find my own way for years. She never came to games, never supported me. Or my father.
“So I went to find both my parents. I met them, and I was like, ‘People need to forgive people. If I can live my life and make it through all the stuff I’ve been through, having a child at 14, being a single dad at 15 and still make it, you can make it too.’ I was just inspired to do that.”
That’s unbelievable. How’d you connect with them?
DA: “I was in the NBA already and they never came looking for me. Most parents, you make it to the NBA, you come looking. But they never came looking for me. When I was about to retire, I was like, ‘I’m going to find my parents.’”
How do you even start going about that?
DA: “You just look around. You ask for peoples’ names. I didn’t know my dad’s full name, but I knew my mom’s full name. So I just went looking around and ended up finding people. It’s a small city in little Kentucky. Eventually you’ll catch them. I found both of them.”
What’s that talk like when you meet them?
DA: “It was emotional. It was frustrating. It was rewarding, to see them still alive. I met my dad and 10 months later he died of cancer. I hadn’t seen him, and he was really struggling with himself. I met my mother in an alley, she was drugged up, so I went and cleaned her up for four years and we had Christmas dinner for the first time two years ago. I’m building a relationship right now. It’s awesome. You realize life is more important than anything when you can forgive and love your parents.”
Wow. How tough was that to forgive them when you were treated that way so young?
DA: “What you do is you go into it knowing you’re all right because you made it. You can’t worry about that. You can’t blame your parents for your success or your failures. You can’t blame them. I’m witness to that.”
You said your father got to see your success winning a championship in Miami right before he passed. Do you feel, I don’t know, lucky to have gotten to him before he passed?
DA: “I definitely do. I closed the chapter. I took him out for his birthday dinner, first time ever.”
Basketball seems trivial given everything that’s gone on for you since, but do you still watch games?
DA: “Yeah, I follow now. It’s frustrating watching some of these young guys. You’ve got a big shooting better than guards. That doesn’t happen. These kids need to stay in school longer and develop a game. But I love watching guys who know how to play and play with passion, a team sport. None of that individual show-off stuff. It’s good watching that.”
Do you follow the Clippers?
DA: “Always. Even when I came back, I’ve always loved the Clippers, because the people were good.”
Is it kind of crazy to think how far they’ve come since your playing days there?
DA: “Yeah, we practiced at Carson Community Center and got kicked out of practice one day. It’s a totally different thing.”
Anderson said he just moved back to Los Angeles for his movie. He attended the Clippers game Dec. 6 against the Pelicans.