Former high school basketball prodigy and NBA all-star Kenny Anderson was today named head coach of the Fisk University men’s basketball team.
Anderson was selected from a pool of more than 200 applicants, according to the Tennesseean Newspaper, and is the latest of several HBCUs to bring former NBA playing talent to the HBCU coaching ranks, including Philander Smith College men’s basketball coach Todd Day.
“I knew the time was right for me to get into coaching, especially on the college level,” said Anderson, who spent the previous seven years coaching travel youth basketball. “I just think the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and the small and the humbling beginning will be a great start for me.”
HBCU Gameday reports on the growing HBCU coaching tree with growing NBA roots.
Two years ago Darrell Walker showed up at Clark Atlanta and led the team to back-to-back D2 NCAA Tournament appearances before leaving for Arkansas-Little Rock this spring. He was replaced by George Lynch, a star at North Carolina and a long-time “glue guy” in the NBA. Former Maryland superstar and NBA veteran Juan Dixon took over at Coppin State last winter after spending a year as women’s basketball coach at UDC.
