Kenny Anderson has been trying to get into coaching for a while now.
He thought he might land on the University of Miami staff, but that didn’t work out.
Now the former NBA All-Star has landed a gig as the head coach at the 120-student David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, Fla. The development was first reported by Bloomberg News.
“I just feel the youth needs me more,” Anderson, 40, told SNY.tv in his first phone interview. “People told me, ‘You should try and get a pro job.’ But my passion is high school or college. I would never knock the NBA, but those guys, they don’t need me.
“It’s not about money, it’s about what I want to do.”
Anderson lives in Pembroke Pines, about 20 minutes from the school.
The team went 10-11 last season and begins play Oct. 3.
Anderson said the school’s headmaster, Dr. Richard Cuenca, wants to build a strong athletic program.
“The basketball program is not rich,” said Anderson, who played 14 seasons in the NBA after being taken as the No. 2 overall pick by the Nets in the 1991 NBA Draft out of Georgia Tech. “The headmaster got there three months ago. He’s really into sports. He wants to bring a good sports program.
“It reminds me a lot of [Archbishop] Molloy because it’s about reaching out to student-athletes.”
He added that he wants to teach kids about “basketball and life lessons.”
Anderson said he hopes to build the program to the point where it could play a school like a Montverde (Fla.) Academy, a national powerhouse now coached by former St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle.
“I’d like to one day play against a real powerhouse just for experience,” he said. “I have to sit and talk to the AD [Mitch Evron] and see how he feels.”
In the meantime, Anderson is just happy to be working with kids.
“Everybody wants to feel wanted,” he said. “They want me there. It’s exciting.”
(Photo courtesy Daily News)
