Ex-NBA star Kenny Anderson has made a major revelation in the run-up to releasing an autobiography next spring. In an interview with SB Nation’s Matt Ufford; he has revealed that he was twice sexually assaulted (by two different men, no two different monsters), as a child.
The sit down interview can be seen here:
“I had to think about it. I had to say, ‘Hey, am I ready to go into this world?'” Anderson says. “When I sat down and was talking about my life and everything that had happened to me, it just kind of shined on me that maybe I should get this out of me and take a load off of me.”
Anderson reveals that one of his abusers was a former coach, but was careful to say that it was not a former AAU coach, or high school coach, or college coach. He said that the full name of the abuser can not be released at this time but will be shortly.
“[The goal is to] just let people know that this is me, that this is what happened to me,” he says. “The bottom line: If i could help somebody and they see, you know, Kenny Anderson got molested and he’s talking about it, now people are gonna come out and maybe be able to tell their story.
“I wasn’t gonna do it. But the trigger went off for me, and it just had to be done.”
This is certainly a difficult public admission for anyone to make, and Anderson will be making more admissions going forward. Hopefully his courage can serve to help other children who have been or are currently being abused, and to give them the strength to talk about their issues and make it stop. If something good can come from this revelation, then Anderson will have done something truly great.
Anderson was the 2nd overall pick out of Georgia Tech in the 1991 NBA Draft by the New Jersey Nets. He played 15 years in the NBA for 9 different teams (8 different franchises, see Hornets). His best season was in 1993-94 when he averaged 18.8 points per game and 9.6 assists per game and was an NBA All-Star.
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