The BirdMan Flies Again

By:  Dan Barto, Director of Player Development  

For those of you that forgot about the Birdman          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFU6hb7_e6A

                                                                             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiBvROW3eUY

The Denver Post's Benjamin Hochman listed the players that have had been nixed from the NBA for an extended period of time do to failing substance testing required by the NBA.  Chris Andersen is at the bottom and will be back in the NBA soon and will have a more successful return than any of the players listed above.

Chris has been staying in shape and retooling his mind and game over the last two years.  I had the pleasure of training Chris for close to three weeks.  My first face to face meeting with the Birdman was one for the ages.  Knowing that he was going to begin his training on court at 8:00 AM, Chris insisted that we meet at 7:00 AM.  As I gave him directions to the gym I waited near the closest parking lot to the gym until I received a call in which I was given directions to the parking lot on the other side of the gym.  As I pulled the cart towards Chris's jacked-up monster truck he honked the horn to let me know it was him.  Of course the sound the horn made was not a beep but an enlightening melody that lasted about 8 seconds.

The Birdman jumped down from the truck in his flannel shirt and boots with a 24oz. Starbucks.  Being nervous about the initial meeting, I waited as Chris said that he had to put money in the parking meter.  The parking spot that he chose was on a college campus that required a $3.00 daily fee.  Chris reappeared shortly in a panicked state, claiming the parking machine ate his debit card.  Sure enough after inspecting the machine there was Chris's card wedged deep inside the dollar bill changer.  We eventually removed the card and worked our way to the court but those 15 minutes of visuals and conversation were classic.

Over the course of the next two weeks, I learned a couple important things about Bird: 

 1.)  He is a joy to be around 100% of the time  

 2.)  He will work until exhaustion  

3.)  He is professional and attentive 

 4.)  The dude can shoot, I repeat the dude can shoot.  

We laughed and worked and laughed harder.  Chris interacted with everyone whose path he crossed from the janitors to the rebounders to the MLS stars who spoke no English.  An absolute animal in the weight room and a soft rim's worst nightmare, Bird never wanted to leave the court.  There were days he would stay and work out with the high school group at the end of the day

I am not rooting for Bird because I want him to buck the trend of the list above.  I am rooting for the Birdman because he has a great soul and a big heart.  He was not an enabled showboat like many of the names above.  He took the long road.  When he got to a fork in the road of his career he stopped and took a couple hits, now it is full steam ahead into helping a team make a deep playoff run.

Possible scenarios:

1.)  Back home to New Orleanes.  I love this.  The city needs him and he gives them an inside prescense that can go deep into the Western Conference.

2.)  Cleveland.  Lebron needs cheap help.  His weak side rebounding and endless energy will make Detroit and Boston tremble in preparation. .

3.)  Miami.  No Shaq, No Mourning.  Looking to run more and need a shot blocker and energy guy.  Riley would love his intensity as would South Beach.

4.)  Dallas.  I have sent 50 emails to Mark Cuban over the past two years.  One time he responded to my passion for changing the game.  The other one he told me to tell Bird "what's up".  

5.)  Denver.  Run, run, run, someone needs to rebound JR Smith's misses on the 2nd unit.