Who the Hell is Chris Andersen?

The harmonic convergence has been too great to ignore …

Smeg starts it off yesterday (perhaps today down under) in DaDa’s “I want Boozer” thread, with this off the cuff riff:

Which in turn prompts a response from brentdapmp, one of Chris’ “good friends”:

Later, in adeelsiddiqui’s (do your friends call you “eye chart?” If so, please see AB’s nickname thread ) “All Star Saturday” thread, adeel breaks the news that Chris is in the dunk contest:

And later adeel thoughfully provides the title for this thread:

To be followed by outlaw’s queer eye for the straight guy commentary on Chris’ body physique and coloration :

All this was too much for me.

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For those wondering, Chris is a 6’10” backup power forward on the Nuggs, averaging 3.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game in 14.5 minutes. He is #1 in the league in blocked shots per 48 minutes, #10 in blocks, and #17 in rebounds per 48 minutes. He is a rebounding and shotblocking monster. Of course, evidently he can’t throw the ball in the ocean from the beach, or more people would know who is he is.

I think he could be an interesting offseason pickup for the Rox. I believe he has a one year contract with the Nuggs. He has Texas ties, and evidently played in the same league with Yao in China.

His personal story is very interesting, as told in this Rocky Mountain News article:

Rocky Mountain News

URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/nuggets/article/0,1299,DRMN_20_2461079,00.html

Lost, and now am found

Left in children's home by his dad, Andersen made his way to NBA
By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

November 27, 2003

For a year, Linda Holubec tried frantically to contact her two oldest children. She left phone messages with her estranged husband, but they never were returned. She sent certified letters, but the return receipts never were signed by her children.

Finally, Holubec, who had given up custody of the children to Claus Andersen because she was working three jobs and couldn't properly support them, took matters into her own hands. She traveled the three hours from her hometown of Iola, Texas, population 333, to Dallas to look for her children.

"I regretted I had to give them up," Holubec said. "It was very difficult on me. I hired a lawyer to help me. I had to find them."

Holubec finally did. Chris Andersen, then 11, and April Andersen, then 13, had been placed by their father in Cumberland Presbyterian Children's Home in Denton, Texas, a half-hour drive north of Dallas. Claus Andersen, an aspiring painter, was said to be traveling the country peddling his artwork.

It took two years of legal wrangling, but Holubec regained custody of her children. They returned to Iola to be reunited with their mother and younger sister Tamie.

Today, Chris Andersen is one of the most popular players on the Denver Nuggets roster. The 6-foot-10 reserve forward ranks sixth in the NBA with 2.77 blocked shots a game. He is known as "Birdman" for his leaping ability.

But it has taken more than physical agility to enable Andersen to jump the obstacles he has faced. After the difficulties of his youth, he had to take a long road to the NBA; he never got an opportunity to play Division I college basketball, and he played in China and three minor leagues before joining the Nuggets.

The undrafted Andersen signed with Denver on Nov. 21, 2001, just before Thanksgiving. That seemed appropriate, since the holiday is an ideal time for Andersen to reflect on how far he has come.

"I'm thankful," he said. "That's what Thanksgiving is all about. I guess you could call (his road to the NBA) amazing. But I'm here. It's not where the road bends. It's where you end up."

If Andersen, 25, continues his development, he could become one of the NBA's top shot blockers. There was a time, though, when life was throwing Andersen some blocks.

Living in a barn

Andersen was born in 1978 in Long Beach, Calif., but moved as a youngster about a 1 ½-hour drive north of Houston to Iola, which has two stop signs, a bank, a small grocery store, café, churches and little else.

"They roll up the sidewalks at 5 o'clock," said Holubec, 49, who has lived there for more than 20 years.

When Andersen was about 5, his parents were divorced. Claus Andersen left for Dallas, leaving Holubec with Chris; April, then 7; and Tamie, then 1.

Claus Andersen, a prison guard, had been building a house, and the family was living temporarily in a barn. When Claus left, Holubec said the family had to remain in the uncomfortable barn for nearly a year until her brother could come from California to help finish the house.

Meanwhile, Holubec was struggling to make ends meet. She was making about $15,000 a year working as a custodian at the police station and post office and as a short-order cook at a local diner.

"I worked around the clock," she said. "I was gone in the morning and back at midnight."

With money tight, Holubec eventually decided it would be best for Chris and April to live with their father, who had remarried. So the two headed to Dallas.

They weren't long for Big D. Holubec said Claus Andersen, whose whereabouts today are unknown, "wanted to go off to New York to sell his artwork rather than raise kids."

So young Chris was faced with the first major decision of his life.

"My father gave me a choice between a military home or a children's home," Andersen said. "I was just a kid, so I didn't really know what was going on."

Andersen said he learned discipline at the home, although he wasn't happy with being forced to eat spinach. While his mother says the home was "hard on" her son, Andersen downplays that.
"It was difficult not seeing your parents and stuff, but I just rolled with it," Andersen said. "I didn't look at it as a negative thing."

Seeking her children

Holubec spent a year trying to contact her children. But she said Claus Andersen and his wife either could not be found or would refuse to divulge the children's whereabouts.

Finally, Holubec traveled to Dallas. She ran into a daughter of Claus Andersen's wife, who told her the children had been sent to Cumberland Presbyterian Children's Home.

During the next two years, Holubec said, getting permission for visits was difficult.

"I made a bad decision (in giving up custody)," she said. "But I had to stick it out. And I did."

Once back in Iola, Andersen began to get heavily involved in basketball.

In one Iola High School game, he said, he blocked 25 shots.

Nevertheless, Andersen, whose high school graduating class included 34 students, never thought seriously about getting a college scholarship from such a small school. He let his grades slip.

Hard road in the pros

Several Division I schools were interested, but Andersen didn't qualify academically. Instead, he went to Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas, where he averaged 10.1 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.67 blocks as a freshman in the 1997-98 season.

But there wouldn't be a sophomore season.

"A lot of people were saying, 'Go play for the money,' " Andersen said. "It went to my head, so I left early to try to make it financially. But it took a while."

Holubec was disappointed when Andersen left school. She soon realized a primary reason was that her son wanted to help her financially.

By basketball standards, Andersen didn't exactly strike it rich.
His first pro job was a 4 ½-month stint in 1999-2000 in China, where he made about $40,000 playing for Jiangsu Nangang.
"That was culture shock," said Andersen, who averaged 17.0 points and 13.5 rebounds and regularly was stopped in the street by autograph seekers and gawkers.

Soon, though, it was back to obscurity.

He played for minor league teams in Albuquerque and Fargo, N.D., and with a club in Fayetteville, N.C., in the NBA-affiliated National Basketball Development League.

Andersen's minor league statistics were, well, minor. But his athletic ability and his height were enough to get him quick NBA looks from the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 2001 summer league and the Phoenix Suns in the team's 2001 training camp.

"He was very athletic, but very raw," said Suns coach Frank Johnson, who was an assistant coach when the team cut Andersen.

Enter Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe. In fall 2001, he saw Andersen play in the NBDL tryout camp and was impressed with his energy. Intrigued, he signed Andersen after the player had appeared in only three games with Fayetteville.
"Nobody really knew who he was," Vandeweghe said. "That happens every now and then. Scouts miss on guys. . . . When it does happen, those are the great stories."

Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik, then a college scout for Denver, said he never had heard of Andersen before he signed. Neither had forward Scott Williams, then with the Nuggets and now with Phoenix.

"The first day he showed up, I said, 'Oh, my goodness, what has Kiki done?' " Williams said. "The first time I saw him, shoot, I was like, 'Who taught this kid fundamentals?' He's still not a great shooter, but he really has improved."

Playing 'within himself'

Andersen endured an uneven first two seasons with the Nuggets, thrilling the team one minute with a dunk or blocked shot and driving coaches crazy the next minute by throwing up a no-hope jumper. With the team unsure of his development, Andersen wasn't offered a guaranteed contract before this season.

But Andersen enjoyed a fine preseason and made the roster. Bzdelik said Andersen finally is learning to "play within himself."
Andersen is averaging 4.0 points, but the Nuggets don't care about his offense. They're most pleased with his 4.5 rebounds in an average of 16.6 minutes, and that he's leading the NBA in blocks per minute.

"It's just a matter of me maturing," said Andersen, who is making $638,679 and wants to buy his mother a house. He already has gotten her a Ford Excursion. "I've worked real hard to get to this point."

With Andersen established in the NBA, Claus Andersen recently attempted to contact his son by sending him a letter through the Nuggets. But Andersen, who hasn't seen his father in more than five years, didn't respond.

"We never talked when I was a younger kid," Andersen said. "Why talk now? . . . My mom is the one who raised me and did the best she could."

Andersen is close to his sisters, who both live in Texas, and to his mother. In fact, Andersen's passion for tattoos came from his mother, who is tattooed from head to toe. While Andersen goes for writing and Chinese symbols, Holubec prefers flowers and hummingbirds.

A free spirit, Holubec rides a Harley-Davidson, once taking it from Iola to Albuquerque to see her son play.

Holubec and her current husband, both retired, soon will arrive in Denver to spend the rest of the season with Andersen, although they won't be coming by motorcycle.

"We'll be there for a while," Holubec said. "I'm so proud of Chris. I never really thought of him making the NBA. He comes from a background in which he's had a lot of negatives, but he's turned it into a positive."

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Here Chris talks about playing with Yao and Wang Zhi-Shi:

Without the grades to qualify for a Division I NCAA program, Anderson spent 11/2 seasons at Bliss Junior College before leaving to play professionally in China.

"Playing with Yao Ming and Wang Zhi-Zhi before they got in the league, it was an experience," said Andersen, who eventually played for Albuquerque of the IBL, Fargo-Moorhead of the IBA and Sugarland of the WBL.

He played in two games for Fayetteville of the NBDL before becoming that developmental league's first call-up to the NBA on Nov. 21, 2001.

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/nuggets/article/0,1713,BDC_2452_2522007,00.html