Behind the B-Ball

Kenny Anderson Gets His College Degree 19 Years After Leaving School For NBA

By Casey Gane-McCalla
May 13, 2010 1:12 pm

“After the child support and the squandered millions, Kenny Anderson was the one who registered for college, who mastered the digital classroom, who studied in his spare time.

“My son sees me with books in my knapsack and he says, ‘You’re 39 years old, you’re still going to school?’ ” Anderson said of his son Ken Jr., 9.

The payoff will come Saturday at St. Thomas University in Miami, when Anderson will don his cap and gown and graduate, 19 years after leaving Georgia Tech.”

http://newsone.com/entertainment/sports-entertainment/casey-gane-mccalla/kenny-anderson-gets-his-college-degree-19-years-after-leaving-school-for-nba/

Having spent the day with a teenager, suspended from school, for thinking he already knows everything, this was an encouraging story. Where there is life, there is hope, and Kenny Anderson is living the proof.

How many of us can say that we spent our lives wisely? For the large majority, only those who had “terrible parents” who made them study hard, and make wise decisions are fortunate enough to be in that situation.

My parents were really terrific and loved me as well as they possibly could, but they were afraid of my hating them, and they let me make some really lousy decisions as a result. I had to throw away ten years of my life thinking I already knew everything, and then ten years undoing the crap I was living in.

Now, the lemonade from the lemons here is that I am a great child advocate who loves kids enough to be hard on them in a way they don’t tolerate from their parents.

Primarily because they are not as familiar with me, and because I have the love and respect of their peers, I get to say what parents wish they could say. I appeal to their intelligence and treat them with respect, because they’re humans. But I don’t care if they hate me for awhile after I’ve told them the hard truths. The bottom line is when you authentically love someone they give you the right to stick em with the hard truths.

While Kenny Anderson’s story is inspirational, it is sadly very rare.