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Nick Anderson (basketball)

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Nick Anderson
Anderson in 2012
Personal information
Born (1968-01-20) January 20, 1968 (age 56)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight228 lb (103 kg)
Career information
High schoolSimeon Career Academy
(Chicago, Illinois)
CollegeIllinois (1987–1989)
NBA draft1989: 1st round, 11th overall pick
Selected by the Orlando Magic
Playing career1989–2002
PositionShooting guard
Number25
Career history
1989–1999Orlando Magic
1999–2001Sacramento Kings
2001–2002Memphis Grizzlies
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points11,529 (14.4 ppg)
Rebounds4,064 (5.1 rpg)
Steals1,114 (1.4 spg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

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).

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 three 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

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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

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Early years

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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

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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; the Magic would bounce back and win the series to advance to their first NBA Finals.[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

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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. After that, 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 for Tariq Abdul-Wahad and draft compensation. 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.[4]

Anderson works for the Orlando Magic in the team's community relations department.[5] He also serves as a commentator for Fox Sports Florida during the Magic's pre-game, halftime and post-game shows.

Honors

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High school

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College

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College statistics

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University of Illinois

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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

[12]

NBA career statistics

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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

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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 20.0
1992–93 Orlando 79 76 37.0 .449 .353 .741 6.0 3.4 1.6 0.7 20.0
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

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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

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  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. ^ "Nick Anderson Career Stats - NBA". ESPN. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  5. ^ "1st Magic Draft Pick Ever – All Time Leading Scorer – Nick Anderson 25". www.nickanderson25.com. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  6. ^ Basketball.RealGM.com
  7. ^ "BasketballMuseumOfIllinois.com". Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
  8. ^ Basketball-Reference.com
  9. ^ IBCA Hall of Fame
  10. ^ FightingIllini.com
  11. ^ Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame
  12. ^ "Nick Anderson College Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
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Awards and achievements
Preceded by Illinois Mr. Basketball Award Winner
1986 		Succeeded by
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