The Sad Story of Nick Anderson 

No matter what people say Nick Anderson was a beast.

Those 4 free throws killed the Shaq and Penny era, and, the entire franchise. That moment right there.

Nick Anderson, Scott Skiles, and Shaquille O’Neal - NBA Jam Legends 💪🏾

Kendall Gill and Nick Anderson would of thrived In today's positionless basketball.both can hit spot up shots and both can defend multiple positions

Wow.... I grew up in Orlando watching him play.. he was the magic in the begining... he was always one of my favorite..ty for a great memory..

A similar case is John Starks after game 7 in the 1994 Finals after going 2/17. It didn’t hit him as hard as it did Nick Anderson, Starks was still a solid player but his body language was not as fiery as it was in the 92,93 and 94 seasons. Games like they had would destroy anyone’s confidence.

Nick Anderson had a great playoff run in 95 leading up to the Finals. Once you checkout mentally & lose confidence in yourself in this game it's time to do other things. I respect that he cared so much about winning that he took that loss hard but in Pro Sports you learn from it and move forward. His best friend Ben "Benji" Wilson was even better than Nick growing up in Chicago but Benji died, Nick wore "25" throughout his Hoop career to Honor Ben!

The Orlando Magic needs to retire his #25 along with the #32 of Shaquille O'Neal because Nick Anderson have been loyal to that franchise and the organization were stupid enough to let Shaq walk to the Los Angeles Lakers.

It wasn't just his missed free throws that lost the game. They should've been up by more than 3. They would've never been there without Nick

Orlando had all the players, they could've been a dynasty but always ended up letting them walk. Penny+shaq could've got them a ring

Nick Anderson Chicago's very own and Former Mr.Illinois played for the University of Illinois, and from the West side of Chicago, Much Love and Respect Nick Anderson

Notice before the 3rd free throw attempt how Penny Hardaway can't even look, he turns his back.

"Shouldn't come down so hard on Nick The Brick. He was a great player before the quadruple fail." ~Hakeem Olajuwon

He choked, but those free throws weren't why they lost the next 3 games off that series. Houston had the vets and just outsmarted them. Not to mention dream was taking Shaq to school during their matchup(shaq even admits it himself). He had his moments too, but best player vs. Best player... Houston won

Rip Drazen Petrovic

Thumbs up!!! Sad story of Mahmud Abdul Rauff!!! Sad story of Mahmud Abdul Rauff!!!

What frustrates me the most watching those 4 three attempts back, is how much Nick rushed them. He was a solid shooter. He should've realized the full gravity of the moment and took his time.

All you had to do is make 1 free throw Nick

Snowball effect of those for free throws from losing the game, getting Swept in that series, and even the future of that franchise amazes me. I felt so bad for Nick Anderson. He was a great player up to that point.

Man I used to love watching Illinois play,Kenny Battle,Kendall Gill,Nick and Lowell to name a few.They were a small team but always played big in the games.

Sadly, Anderson had this stain on his career and life, and it is a big stain, but he is truly a great player and a great human and THAT is more important than anything. #OdedFriedGaon #OdedMusic #OdedInformation #Audioded

Lol, you sound like he died and are speaking a eulogy. The guy made his money and is living well. I don't think he cares about some missed foul shots.

Nick Anderson had an amazing NBA career and he was the clutch shooter minus the free-throw situation and that should not define his body of work in the NBA.

He was_is a good solid player,athletic....

Hey Nick I hope u read this God loves you he’s waiting for u to love him back the magic fans like me love u too

If he made at least 1, Magic would've won game 1 and probably the series because of all the confidence & momentum they would've gained.Nick would've been the star of the playoffs that season. He was the one who stole the ball from Jordan in the playoffs. Imagine if he sealed the deal with those FT's in game 1? Damn!

Nick was an Illinois star who never had a bad game. If there were 5 Nick Anderson's, the Illini would easily have defeated Michigan for the national title. At the end of his 10-year pro career he put on a one-man demolition show against the Lakers. Yes, there were disappointments. But tragedy? Is Jordan's game called "tragic" because he let Nick rob him? After missing one free throw, Nick tried to be perfect. That's not even "human," and it's certainly not Nick. He quit the game when it became more about his head than his heart.

Jr smith and George hill: hold my beer

That boy Nick was a beast back in the mid 90's

Love the channel.. you should do one on Marcus Liberty.. kid was a phenom in high school and did well in college but fizzled out as a pro

I was watching this match live at home and couldn't believe he missed 4 free through

I understand the downfall but he was a millionaire. He should have spent his money getting professional help Psychologically. And Get Back then.

I still remember the day that roast beef sammich....changed my life.

Good player. 4 free throws don't make a career or determine a series. Orlando never manifested success, but not because of Nick Anderson.

he basically ruined what could have been an amazing dynasty

The odds of a 70.4% free throw shooter missing 4 consecutive free throws is

That Orlando team is still to this day my all-time favorite and Shaq my favorite player ever. This was a team that had such great chemistry, talent that is rarely seen and was just fun and exciting to watch. Shaq and Penny, there will never be a duo like that again. Shaq may have won his rings with Kobe but they hated each other and that animosity broke up the Lakers' dynasty. Egos came before the team. With Orlando I think is was the mismanagement of that team that led to it breaking up when it should have been a dynasty. All the pieces was there but incompetents in the front office and the coach led to three consecutive sweeps out of the playoffs and Shaq leaving. Injuries stole Penny's career much like Grant Hill's. Had he stayed healthy, Shaq stayed and the team brought on a different coaching staff, things may have been much different. I don't blame Nick but that one game destroyed his career and he never was the same.

If I was his coach here is what I would have done. I would have taken him on a trip to a very impoverished country. We would have went from village to village until finding one that needed a school, clinic or water well ( you get the point). Then tell him, "Look around you..be very grateful for what you have. It was and still is, just a game. Now get back out there and after we win a championship, we will come back and build the school water well that this village needs".

Great Player and Amazing Person🤴🏾

Nick Anderson was a boss.

If it was a close series, his foul shots would not nearly be remembered as much.

So it was 3-0 for Houston and they lost the whole series because Nick Anderson hit free trhows in game 4? Yeah ppl can make things up.

I want to tell my own personal story about Nick Anderson. I'm a white very white female 24 year old waitress in Orlando Florida in 1993 and Nick Anderson used to come into the bar that I worked at called the Everglades and we used to have Reggae night every Friday and Nick Anderson used to come in with all the Orlando magic players used to hang there.. and Nick Anderson NEVER didn't Tip us HUGE. I mean huge like "life changing huge" money. Nick would tip all of us big. Now let's talk about Shaquille O'Neal who is also on the Orlando Magic at the same time... sometimes shaq would tip sometimes not. Shaq was always kind of a dick. Nick Anderson always made sure he took care of every single person that ever waited on him in our bar... and if you work in the service industry you know that that's important because a lot of rich people especially celebrities.. who think they're better than everybody else don't tip at all! Nick Anderson always took care of all of us WHITE girls every single one of us and he never really asked for anything special he just always wanted to make sure we didn't ignore his "party" because he always came in with a bunch of people like... 30 or 40 friends. I bet he would remember me all these years later because I was the one who worked outside the main door in front of the reggae party and that's where he said he always wanted to be I know he would remember me if he saw my face😂 4:11

I never knew...…..thanks for posting

He had one great season when Penny left i think,he played like old Nick

Well based on his numbers on basketball reference this story does not hold but nice one, remeber those times Nick was great..

"I let it get to me mentally." That's an understatement.

Bro, I never knew what the hell happened to him after they got swept by Houston. He may as well had fallen off the face of the earth. Never knew his confidence got shook like that. Damn shame.

Moral of the story is that free throws are important. Another kid from Illinois, little Benton IL about 350 miles south of Chicago, spawned a player who hit 2 of the most consequential free throws in history. Doug Collins buried those 2 at the end of the infamous Olympic game against the Soviets that lead to the dream team and literally had nuclear overtones.

He changed history who knows what happens if they win that game maybe win it all and shaq n penny start a dynasty in Orlando

As a Houston Rocket fan!!! Thank you Nick!!! You are alright with me!!!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

They should retire 25# To me he was a all-star and he was like Brian Russell jazz and the face of the team.

I was pulling for the magic big time in this finals, I was a huge fan of Penny and the whole team. Nick was great before this happened

I thought this video would cover his classmate "Benji" at Simeon.

In Houston at least... his name down here was "Nick the Brick" after that ish

I watched this and couldn't believe it

Good work.. Thanks

Damn Kenny traveled his ass off TWICE! That proves the NBA been on that BS even back then.

Bro I have notifications set to all and I haven't been receiving notifications for months

Some players are bigger than the MOMENT, unfortunately for Nick the moment was bigger than he was, and it ruined his confidence. The Charles Smith game, and the moment getting the better of John Starks on multiple occasions is what we Knicks fans lose sleep at night over, it is always too bad though.

20 years from now JR Smith will be in one of your videos.

#Thanks for the information I wondered what happened to this guy!

How about Royal another Magic's Player

That's why you don't steal a ball from Michael Jordan !

please do a video on the yugoslavia-soviet union rivalry from 1980 to 1990 in international basketball

Hey if Nick made those free throws nobody would talk about that team. Shag was looking to LA and he was gonna check out anyway.

The story of Billy Owens is more tragic.

There is no fair or unfair, he just got beaten down by his own weakness and never wanna get up again.

That rockets series pissed me off soooo bad at 7 years old lmaooo.

We killed the magic Clutch City 🤘🏿

He wore the number (25) in honor of Benji Wilson.

Lol the song at the beginning of the video is like one of those songs that they would play in 90's basketball games. Or just commercials and stuff evolving basketball in the 90's in general

I remember watching that game at home in clarkston ga...

I think he is one of the 3 n D OGs

Can u do a Larry Johnson documentary?

That 89 Illinois team he was on was great, just couldn’t beat Michigan for a 3rd time.

No bro it’s not in the past ... we’re still talking about it

That ball should of never been in his hands. Give it to the shooter.

Before I see this video, all i know i he miss 4 free throw from shaq.

This guy sent shaq to LA. Not penny. Not the lowballing of Magic. Those 4 free throws missed. Man that was hard to watch. I can’t watch those ft’s. First two missed, then that offensive rebound, another hope, 2 more missed. That is hard to watch really. He shot like 35 percent in 96/97. Sad sad story

Top 10 best Chicago natives ever.

Very sad. He never forgave himself.

Nick Anderson did have a mini-comeback in 97 or 98, can't remember exactly, where he had to carry the team because Penny was out with an injury. He even won Player of the Month once during that run. Then, in the lockout season, he was pretty good again, and Penny was available too. The Magic was tied with the best record in the east, but got upset by 6th seeded 76ers, led by A.I. After that, the Magic let go Nick and Penny, cause it was obvious they weren't getting any better.

Nick Anderson to me was a lighter Charles Barkley, with much better shooting ability. And listening to theses old heads speak about him in largely the same way, how he used his body (his backside in particular), and how he was a man among boys even at the professional basketball level……. I was 16 in 1995, and I liked his game, and too bad how he fell off like he did.

Here I was thinking nick was a good serviceable player only to see that he missed those 4 free throws before I even started watching hoops in 1996. He was on track to be a star huh

That's actually tuff tho nick anderson wasnt the same player after he missed those three throws

Anderson Clutch as Fuck

What game highlight was the audio of the intro?

I thought he had died. His still alive

This shit is like the Ben Simmons case. This is the coach fault. This is why all coach get their shooter in at closing out time and take out the non FT shooters.

Yeah I felt kind of bad for Nick. Good friend gets murdered for some petty ass shit, and Nick wears 25 to honor him. He was a good nba player, has a 50 point game and nobody remembers because Shaq tore down the hoop. Nick played solid throughout the 95’ playoffs, and was having a very good game 1 before missing those 4 FTs. His confidence was affected and he played poorly for the rest of the series. Dennis Scott was bricking everything for the series too. That was a big difference in the series. Shaq and Penny would score a lot, but get little help offensively. Hakeem and Clyde got help from guys like Kenny, Cassel, Big Shot Bob.

If U really know how Humans Operate then U should know that every Human has “Trigger Button” … A word or phrase that will Snap Them back to Reality… That’s what having a Older Veteran on The Team is for . And Orlando didn’t have too many on that Team that would’ve known Nick Personally and could’ve gave Him a much needed “Trigger Button” phrase when Nick was at The Free Throw Line. If U were mature enough and knew Nick Personally a simple “Make One for Benji” would’ve did The Job for Nick at that Time.. That would’ve instantly Snapped Him out of it.. Sometimes U have to remind Ppl of The Journey that it took for Them to be at that very moment…💯.. It’s Something that happens to The Best of Us at any given moment in Life….🙏🏾✊🏾💯💪🏽

Game was fixed that game !!!

are nick Anderson and JR smith brothers??

Where the Benji mention??

Marcus Liberty.....the pride of Illinois

Brick Anderson

50 points off the bench

What do you think about Dani avdia?

Sorry nick but according to the Jordan people that moment you stole the ball from MJ was erased and therefore never happened. We gona need to edit this! Lol.