Denver Native (Carol)
09-18-2013, 09:07 PM
In June, when the Miami Heat defended their NBA title, the team's inimitable center, Chris "Birdman" Andersen, soared to the height of his unlikely professional career.
While it was an entirely different kind of joy, the happiest moment of his summer came a couple months later. In August, Andersen was back in Denver with his friend, lawyer and agent, Mark Bryant, when they were summoned to an undisclosed location to meet with a local district attorney, a Douglas County investigator and a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A complex diagram, a detailed anatomy of a multi-tentacled crime, hung on the wall of a meeting room. After a few profanities and long looks of disbelief, Andersen smiled. He was going to get his name back.
Andersen's basketball narrative has always been as colorful as his epidermis. Born to "hippy parents" (his phrase), who flitted in and out of his life, Andersen spent time in an orphanage as a kid. He never played basketball at a Division I college, instead opting for a Texas junior college, then a pro league in China and the IBL (where he once missed a game after breaking a molar while biting down on his tongue stud) before making it to the NBA. Then another setback. In 2006, he was suspended two years for violating the league's drug policy; he bounced back and became a beloved role player for the Nuggets. All of this was just prelude for what might be the most bizarre Birdman story of all.
rest - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20130918/chris-anderson-clears-name/#ixzz2fHVAW6JI
WOW - I am glad that Birdman was innocent in this
While it was an entirely different kind of joy, the happiest moment of his summer came a couple months later. In August, Andersen was back in Denver with his friend, lawyer and agent, Mark Bryant, when they were summoned to an undisclosed location to meet with a local district attorney, a Douglas County investigator and a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A complex diagram, a detailed anatomy of a multi-tentacled crime, hung on the wall of a meeting room. After a few profanities and long looks of disbelief, Andersen smiled. He was going to get his name back.
Andersen's basketball narrative has always been as colorful as his epidermis. Born to "hippy parents" (his phrase), who flitted in and out of his life, Andersen spent time in an orphanage as a kid. He never played basketball at a Division I college, instead opting for a Texas junior college, then a pro league in China and the IBL (where he once missed a game after breaking a molar while biting down on his tongue stud) before making it to the NBA. Then another setback. In 2006, he was suspended two years for violating the league's drug policy; he bounced back and became a beloved role player for the Nuggets. All of this was just prelude for what might be the most bizarre Birdman story of all.
rest - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20130918/chris-anderson-clears-name/#ixzz2fHVAW6JI
WOW - I am glad that Birdman was innocent in this