NBLC Alumni: Anthony Anderson
5'11
Guard
From Lynn, Massachusetts
2014 NBLC MVP
4xAll-NBLC
2xNBLC Scoring Champion
Anthony Anderson nearly turned his back on a professional basketball career, but through encouragement to make use of his talents, he went on to leave a historic mark on the NBL Canada.
A celebrated high school player at Lynn English, Anderson accepted a roster place with the UMass Minutemen after graduation. Winning the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year award would be the first of his UMass career: he became the starting point guard and team captain, and still ranks third in the team’s history for both assists and three pointers.
With his time with the Minutemen over, he did not turn professional but instead took a job as a debt collector. He kept basketball a part of his life, though, serving as assistant coach at his old high school and playing in minor and weekend leagues. It was in one of these where he caught the attention of London Capital in the British Basketball League, who signed Anderson to his first professional contract.
Finding the team a bad fit, Anderson returned to the USA and signed with the Manchester Mill Rats in the ABA, being named ABA Most Valuable Player in his first year as a professional. He followed that up with a season in Cyprus, where he led the league in scoring with AEK Larnaca, and a stint with Inowroclaw in Poland before returning to the Mill Rats in 2010.
In 2011, the Mill Rats moved to Saint John, becoming part of the newly-formed NBL Canada. In his first season in New Brunswick he averaged 18.4 points per game and was named to the league’s first team. Anderson reached double digits in all but two games, which included eight double-doubles and a season-high 35 points against the Summerside Storm on November 17th.
The following season with the same team, Anderson broke forty points for the first time with 43 against the Moncton Miracles on January 30th 2013. He had season-best averages of 24.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game before parting ways with the Mill Rats mid-way through the season, joining El Jaish in Qatar before coming back to the team in 2013.
The 2013-14 season proved to be a career-defining time for Anderson and a historic one for the NBL Canada. Playing in 43 games, he scored 941 points – the most of any player in the season, a total that made him the league’s all-time highest scorer. This included his first triple-double, two forty-point games and seven where he reached thirty or over, efforts which all netted him the league's MVP award.
The following season, Anderson's fifth with Saint John, he broke his own scoring record with 51 points vs the Orangeville A's on February 18th 2016. Having averaged 20.6 points per game and receiving his third All-NBLC First Team selection, he reached the Atlantic division finals for the first time, though the team were swept by the Halifax Hurricanes.
In 2016 the Saint John team became the Riptide, but retained familiarity in the services of Anthony Anderson. He opened the season with three straight double-doubles and went on to score in double digits in all but three games, included five thirty-point games and matching his own scoring record with 51 points along with 10 assists against the Cape Breton Highlanders on March 28th 2017. Such a high-scoring season Anderson earned his second league scoring title, to date the only NBLC player to do so.
After eight years with the organization, Anderson left Saint John in 2017 and joined the Moncton Magic. He made 48 starts and averaged 13.8 points per game in Moncton, but still could not capture that elusive league championship, as Moncton went as far as the Atlantic Division finals in that year's playoffs, losing four games to one against Halifax.
The 2017-18 season with the Magic was the last time Anderson made an appearance on a basketball court, and though time will tell if it would be his last, what he has done already has proven him to be top player, one of the NBLC greats with a legacy to match. He was honoured by the league in their tenth season with a place on the ten-year NBLC team.
