Nick Anderson (basketball)

Nelison "Nick" Anderson (born January 20, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, and Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Nick Anderson

Anderson in 2012
Personal information
Born	(1968-01-20) January 20, 1968 (age 55) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight	228 lb (103 kg)
Career information
High school	Simeon Career Academy (Chicago, Illinois)
College	Illinois (1987–1989)
NBA draft	1989 / Round: 1 / Pick: 11th overall
Selected by the Orlando Magic
Playing career	1989–2002
Position	Shooting guard
Number	25
Career history
1989–1999	Orlando Magic
1999–2001	Sacramento Kings
2001–2002	Memphis Grizzlies
Career highlights and awards
First-team All-Big Ten (1989) Second-team Parade All-American (1986) McDonald's All-American (1986) Illinois Mr. Basketball (1986)
Career NBA statistics
Points	11,529 (14.4 ppg)
Rebounds	4,064 (5.1 rpg)
Steals	1,114 (1.4 spg)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Anderson played high school basketball at Simeon Career Academy where he was named "Illinois Mr. Basketball" for 1986 after leading his team to the city championship and a top national ranking in USA Today.

Anderson would go on to play at the University of Illinois for two years. He was then drafted by the Orlando Magic in the 1989 NBA draft. He currently serves the Magic in several off-the-court functions and was elected to the "Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team" in 2004.

College career

Anderson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign for three years, playing on the team that reached the NCAA Final Four in 1989; that Fighting Illini team was given the nickname "Flyin' Illini" by Dick Vitale. Among Anderson's teammates were Kendall Gill, Stephen Bardo, Kenny Battle, Lowell Hamilton, and Marcus Liberty; all of these except Hamilton would go on to play in the NBA.

NBA career

Early years

Anderson left school and entered the NBA draft in 1989, where he was selected with the 11th pick of the first round by the Orlando Magic. As the Magic were an expansion team that season, Anderson was the first draft pick in the franchise's history.

Like most expansion franchises, the Magic were a young team and Anderson was one of its few bright spots. As a result, the Magic were awarded high draft picks in several consecutive years, including Dennis Scott in 1990, Shaquille O'Neal in 1992, and Chris Webber, who was traded for a package including Penny Hardaway in 1993. In his first few seasons, Anderson was the Magic's top scoring option, and led the team in points per game during the 1991–92 season. As the team's talent level increased, Anderson was gradually relegated to a lesser offensive role but remained a consistent member of the team's starting lineup. Exceptions include the April 23, 1993, game at New Jersey, in which he scored a career-high 50 points off the bench.^[1] In 1994–95, Anderson led Orlando in three-pointers with 179, and averaged 15.9 points per game. The Magic won 57 games, finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference, and won their first ever Atlantic Division title.

1994–95 postseason

In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Magic faced the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, who had recently returned from an aborted baseball career wearing the number 45 instead of his famous number 23. At the end of Game One, Anderson famously stripped Jordan from behind, leading to the game-winning basket for the Magic. He later commented that Jordan "didn't look like the old Michael Jordan"^[2] and that "No. 45 doesn't explode like No. 23 used to." Jordan then returned to wearing his old number in the next game, scoring 38 points in a Bulls win.^[3]

Game One of the NBA Finals was against the defending champion Houston Rockets, at the Orlando Arena. With the Magic up by three points late in the game, Anderson, typically a 70% free throw shooter, missed four consecutive free throws that could have sealed the victory for Orlando. Kenny Smith hit a three-pointer for Houston shortly thereafter, tying the game and sending it to overtime. The Rockets went on to win the game in overtime and eventually swept the Magic, winning their second consecutive NBA Championship. As a result of this incident, some Orlando fans began to label Anderson with the derogatory nicknames of "Nick the Brick" and "Brick Anderson".

Post-1995 career

He showed no immediate effect from his struggles in the 1995 finals, as he had another strong season in 1995–96. However, his season ended due to a wrist injury in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Since then, Anderson's career took an abrupt downward spiral, largely due to a sudden inability to shoot free throws. During the 1996–97 season, Anderson's free throw shooting percentage tumbled to a career-low 40.4% and his scoring average to 12.0 points per game. Anderson had to be removed from the closing minutes of several close games due to being an unreliable free throw shooter.

His struggles worsened through the first half of the 1997–98 season. Through January 27 of that season, Anderson was averaging only 6.5 points per game, and shooting a paltry 36.3% from the free throw line. However, in the second half of the season, Anderson experienced a sudden career revival, as his scoring average abruptly jumped to 22.6 points per game, and his free throw percentage improved to a 67.6%, a figure close to his former career average. He ended the season with a scoring average of 15.3 points per game.

Anderson would play on with the Magic through the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season, after which he was traded to the Sacramento Kings. He left Orlando as the team's career scoring leader. He was the last player remaining from the Magic's original expansion roster, having remained with the franchise for ten seasons.

He played two seasons in Sacramento, averaging a career-low at that point, 10.8 points per contest in 72 games his first season. He played 21 games the next season, and 15 games in his final season, in which he played for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Anderson works for the Orlando Magic in the team's community relations department.^[4] He also serves as a commentator for Fox Sports Florida during the Magic's pre-game, halftime and post-game shows.

Honors

High school

• 1986 – IHSA 1st Team All-State
• 1986 – Parade Magazine 2nd Team All-American^[5]
• 1986 – McDonald's All-American^[6][7]
• 1986 – Illinois Mr. Basketball
• 2013 – Inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame as a player.^[8]

College

• 1988 – Illini Co-MVP^[9]
• 1988 – 2nd Team All-Big Ten
• 1988 – Honorable Mention All American
• 1989 – Illini MVP
• 1989 – 1st Team All-Big Ten
• 1989 – NCAA All-Regional Team (MOP)
• 1989 – Honorable Mention All American
• 1989 – First player ever drafted by the Orlando Magic.
• 2004 – Elected to the "Illini Men's Basketball All-Century Team".
• 2008 – Honored as one of the 33 honored jerseys which hang in the State Farm Center to show regard for being the most decorated basketball players in the University of Illinois' history.
• 2017 – Inducted into the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame^[10]

College statistics

University of Illinois

Season	Games	Points	PPG	Field Goals	Attempts	Avg	Free Throws	Attempts	Avg	Rebounds	Avg	Assists	APG	Blocks	BPG	Steals	SPG
1987–88	33	525	15.9	223	390	.572	77	120	.642	217	6.6	53	1.6	28	0.8	37	1.1
1988–89	36	647	18.0	262	487	.538	99	148	.669	285	7.9	72	2.0	32	0.9	57	1.6
Totals	69	1,172	17.0	485	877	.553	176	268	.657	502	7.3	125	1.8	60	0.9	94	1.4

^[11]

NBA career statistics

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1989–90	Orlando	81	9	22.0	.494	.059	.705	3.9	1.5	0.9	0.4	11.5
1990–91	Orlando	70	42	28.2	.467	.293	.668	5.5	1.5	1.1	0.6	14.1
1991–92	Orlando	60	59	36.7	.463	.353	.667	6.4	2.7	1.6	0.6	19.9
1992–93	Orlando	79	76	37.0	.449	.353	.741	6.0	3.4	1.6	0.7	19.9
1993–94	Orlando	81	81	34.7	.478	.322	.672	5.9	3.6	1.7	0.4	15.8
1994–95	Orlando	76	76	34.1	.476	.415	.704	4.4	4.1	1.6	0.3	15.8
1995–96	Orlando	77	77	35.3	.442	.391	.692	5.4	3.6	1.6	0.6	14.7
1996–97	Orlando	63	61	34.3	.397	.353	.404	4.8	2.9	1.9	0.5	12.0
1997–98	Orlando	58	44	29.3	.455	.360	.638	5.1	2.1	1.2	0.4	15.3
1998–99	Orlando	47	39	33.6	.395	.347	.611	5.9	1.9	1.4	0.3	14.9
1999–00	Sacramento	72	72	29.1	.391	.332	.487	4.7	1.7	1.3	0.2	10.8
2000–01	Sacramento	21	0	8.0	.246	.256	–	1.2	0.6	0.5	0.2	1.8
2001–02	Memphis	15	0	14.6	.276	.271	.556	2.2	0.9	0.4	0.4	4.0
Career		800	636	31.2	.446	.356	.667	5.1	2.6	1.4	0.5	14.4

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1994	Orlando	3	3	40.0	.382	.400	.750	3.3	3.3	1.7	0.7	14.3
1995	Orlando	21	21	38.8	.448	.383	.683	4.8	3.1	1.6	0.5	14.2
1996	Orlando	11	11	38.0	.433	.286	.622	5.0	1.9	1.9	0.5	14.2
1997	Orlando	5	5	26.0	.333	.267	.000	5.8	0.6	0.6	1.8	5.6
1999	Orlando	4	4	38.0	.367	.262	.737	6.8	2.3	2.3	0.0	20.8
2000	Sacramento	5	5	26.4	.324	.350	.875	3.4	0.4	0.2	0.6	7.2
Career		49	49	36.0	.413	.333	.678	4.9	2.2	1.5	0.6	13.1

References

1. "Orlando Magic at New Jersey Nets Box Score, April 23, 1993 - Basketball-Reference.com". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
2. Lawrence, Mitch. Memories of MJ's first two acts, ESPN, September 10, 2001. Retrieved December 16, 2008.
3. Walks, Matt (May 7, 2015). "Flashback: 20 years ago today, Anderson forces MJ back to No. 23". ESPN. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
4. "1st Magic Draft Pick Ever – All Time Leading Scorer – Nick Anderson 25". www.nickanderson25.com. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
5. Basketball.RealGM.com
6. BasketballMuseumOfIllinois.com
7. Basketball-Reference.com
8. IBCA Hall of Fame
9. FightingIllini.com
10. Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame
11. "Nick Anderson College Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.

External links

• Historical player file
• NBA.com profile
• Career statistics
• Nick Anderson's official website

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Ed Horton	Illinois Mr. Basketball Award Winner 1986	Succeeded by Marcus Liberty