Former Kentucky player’s death concludes a what-might-have-been story
Dwight Anderson, whose nickname “The Blur” saluted his speed but could also have served as an epitaph for a basketball career that resembled a shooting star flashing through the night sky, died Saturday. He was 59. The cause of death was pending an autopsy.
Anderson came to Kentucky in 1978 as the No. 1-ranked freshman recruit in the country.
“I would say before I knew about Michael Jordan, Dwight Anderson was the Michael Jordan of our era,” NBA legend Isiah Thomas said in a documentary on Anderson tilted “The Blur.”
Anderson shone brightly and briefly as a UK player. “Loved watching his energy and especially his great game against Notre Dame in Louisville,” said Jerry Hale, who played for UK earlier in the 1970s. Anderson scored 17 points in 19 minutes against the Irish in the seventh game of his freshman season.
Anderson was UK’s second-leading scorer (13.3 points per game) that 1978-79 season.
Evoking the name of a future Kentucky star, former UK teammate Derrick Hord called Anderson “John Wall before there was a John Wall.”
Hord recalled Anderson regularly winning the 220-yard sprints the Kentucky players did in conditioning drills. Players were required to run 13 straight 220-yard sprints, each in 32 seconds or less.
The memory of one set of sprints remains vivid in Hord’s mind. “About halfway through the last one, he turned around the ran backwards,” Hord said. “And still beat everybody.
“It was something we all laughed about.”
Then in December of his sophomore season Anderson was gone. He transferred to Southern California in December of 1980. The NBA career of “Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan” consisted of five games with the Denver Nuggets.
In the documentary, sportswriter Elton Alexander, who covered the prep star that was Anderson for The Dayton Daily News, said the arc of his basketball career was “the epitome of watching someone’s talent being wasted.”
During a 2013 interview, Anderson acknowledged that drug and alcohol use derailed his basketball career. His chemicals of choice were cocaine and cognac.
“Brought me down 100 percent,” he said. “I didn’t want to play. I wanted to get a paycheck and go to the party.”
Anderson was taken by the then-Washington Bullets in the second round of the 1982 NBA Draft. After five failed tryouts with other NBA teams, he played for three Continental Basketball Association teams, two seasons in the Philippines and finally two games with a hometown team, the Dayton Wings of the World Basketball League in 1991.
Anderson became homeless. He hustled for drug money in pickup games. He said he won $1,000 in a one-on-one game. He also said he became good at “casing:” — the word he used to describe when fast-food restaurants took out the garbage and he knew it was time to get the best scraps.
In 2004, Anderson entered the Houston-based John Lucas Treatment Center.
His sister, Toni Anderson, said he had straightened out his life.
“He had gotten himself cleaned up,” she said Sunday. “He wasn’t doing drugs anymore.”
Anderson had been working at Economy Linen & Towel Service in Dayton in the past year or so, she said. “They loved him there.”
Anderson was living with and helping take care of his mother. His mother discovered him on his bedroom floor Saturday. Toni Anderson said an emergency medical team that was called found him dead.
The family is awaiting word of the cause of death, she said.
Besides his sister Toni and his mother, Sandy, survivors include a brother, Arthur Anderson, and three children: Dwanna, Dwight Jr. and Darion.
