The first time I saw Kenny Anderson play was on television. He was a high school All-American at Archbishop Molloy in the Briarwood section of Queens, New York, and I was in middle school at St. Francis Xavier in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Kenny was my hero, as he was to thousands of New York City basketball-obsessed youngsters growing up during the 80s and 90s. When he signed with Georgia Tech, located in some southern outpost called Atlanta, I was onboard as a Yellow Jackets fan for life. When he was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in 1991, the second overall pick, I was a Nets fan for life as well. Kenny Anderson could have started robbing banks and I would have done the same. When I say that I was a 12-year-old Kenny Anderson “fan,” I’m putting it lightly, very lightly.
I talked to Anderson on Sunday afternoon about a documentary on his life, career and most important his message, titled “Mr. Chibbs.” Directed, written and produced by Jill Campbell of BMG Brokers LLC and financed by BMG Brokers LLC, the documentary has made its way around the country — New York, Miami — and on Saturday night, it made its way to Atlanta at the Atlanta Film Festival. I, too, made my way down to the film festival to see the film up close and personal — not to find out more about Anderson or his career, I know all about that from 20-plus years of research. I wanted to see the city of Atlanta come out and how much they appreciated Anderson’s two seasons at Georgia Tech, one of which culminated in the 1990 Final Four. What I saw was even better than I ever expected but was everything I hoped for. “It was a great turnout,” said Anderson.
“Atlanta’s my second home. I never really left,” Campbell added. “It was awesome, I felt the crowd really got the film. You could really feel the love in the room.”
“People received the film and the message,” said Barry Greenstein, owner of BMG Brokers and an executive producer of the documentary. “It really went well.”
Anderson had a long career in the NBA, 13 seasons, and even played parts of his final season in the league in Atlanta (38 games in 2004-05), but his time in the “ATL” will always be highlighted by what he and his Yellow Jacket teammates and coaches did on North Avenue. Campbell did a great job of focusing on that period and the excitement on college basketball that has rarely, if ever, been duplicated in Atlanta.
“It was really important for us to spend time on the Georgia Tech segment of the film,” said Campbell, a native New Yorker and veteran filmmaker.
The love for that ‘90 Final Four team seems to get stronger as time goes on and “Mr. Chibbs” did a great job of bringing me back to my living room in Brooklyn, watching Anderson, Yellow Jacket head coach and Bronx, New York, native Bobby Cremins and future NBA players Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver — “Lethal Weapon Three” (If you don’t know who they are, you’re probably too young to be reading this column; Google it.) — drive to the Final Four.
“This is positive, it’s something he’s doing for the community,” says Campbell about the message of the film. “It was very important to tap into the understanding of what Kenny did and is doing in his life.”
The Georgia Tech faithful in attendance on Saturday showed their love, but more importantly, Anderson wanted to make sure they saw his love for the school that took him in as an 18-year-old almost 30 years ago. Despite being quite possibly the most heavily recruited guard in the history of the game (Look it up!), Anderson still sounds humble in regards to his time at Georgia Tech and in Atlanta.
“I’m always going to support my school,” he says. “I’m Georgia Tech forever.”
There weren’t just fans and supporters in attendance Saturday night, Cremins, Oliver and former Yellow Jacket teammate Malcolm Mackey, an NBA player in his own right, made it to the showing.
“Dennis couldn’t make it last night,” said Anderson about his close friend and former college teammate. “He was out of town.”
Scott’s absence didn’t take away from the family vibe I noticed around Anderson, his wife and film crew.
“It was very important that my Georgia Tech family came out to support,” said Anderson at the close of our interview.
The film has been picked up by Abramorama, an independent distribution company that has done work on films about John Coltrane and The Beatles, amongst others. The plan, according to Campbell, is to have a few showings in venues around New York before coming up with a plan for what she hopes will be a national distribution of “Mr. Chibbs.”
“That’s big,” said Anderson about the documentary being picked up. “They saw the vision of the film that Jill had put together; they saw my story.”
A story I am too familiar with and cannot wait to continue to watch unfold on screen and in real life.
“Make sure you stop by and say hello to Kenny and me the next time we’re in town,” said Campbell.
I had revealed to her earlier in our interview that I kept a respectable journalistic distance due to this column. My answer to her was simple: “I sure will.”
HHJ News
