What Happened To Kenny Anderson?

After 10 consecutive hours of watching football it's only right to let my wife grip the TV remote for a little while. I always cringe when this happens because I know I'll get stuck watching housewives of somewhere or travelling pants or Giada making some spinach dip with artichoke hearts. On Sunday after the Eagles/Cowboys game my wife didn't disappoint. She managed to find a Basketball Wives marathon! My favorite! As I watched groupie chick after groupie chick talk about how difficult their lives were spending their ex-husband's money my heart sank when I saw a New York legend reduced to a narcissistic dead beat dad.

Kenny Anderson was one of my favorite players growing up. The point guard from Archbishop Molloy high school is one of the greatest point guards New York has ever produced and the first player to be named All-City four times (not even Kareem did that). I followed hm closely because he was left handed like me and he had court vision like Magic and Isaiah. He excelled at Georgia Tech for 2 seasons leading the Yellow Jackets to the final four before becoming the 2nd player picked in the 1991 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets. By 1993 Kenny was at the top of his game making the all-star team and leading the Nets to the playoffs when it all started to unravel.

His career started to spiral downward when he married reality TV star Tami Roman from the Real World Los Angeles. I remember asking myself, "What is this guy thinking?" Sure enough that marriage spelled disaster for one of my guys. Although he would go on to sign a $50,000,000 contract his game was never quite the same after the Tami fiasco. He bounced around from team to team, lost his confidence, and squandered his fortune. I though he would go down as one of the greatest, but instead he just became another statistic.

Just when I thought the wounds of disappointment were healed here comes Tami Roman on ANOTHER reality TV show once again making Kenny look like a fool in front of the whole world. I remember asking myself, "Does he really have to do this?" "Does he really have to humiliate himself like this?" Kenny Anderson is the perfect example of why sports fans should keep the context of sports in perspective. Even basketball gods make mistakes that will haunt them the rest of their lives. If you don't temper your level of expectation you could end up bitter and pissed off like me. I'm glad I didn't buy that Georgia Tech #12 jersey like I wanted to. It would be unwearable at this point.