Before he left for Belgium on Wednesday to become a professional basketball player for the first time, Ryan Anderson made one final pass through Tucson.
But it wasn’t all about celebration or seeing old friends. Hardly.
Anderson went back to work. He came to town to run a basketball clinic at Pueblo High School for two days last weekend and, when stopping over on campus, put on some workout gear and a vest.
Then he and Wildcat center Dusan Ristic headed out to a UA sandpit, racing sideways back and forth, in the August heat. There’s video evidence on Instagram.
“Tucson summers have never held me and @ristic_dusan back!!” Anderson posted. “Felt like the good ole days today.”
As it turned out, the visit was just another stop on the basketball path that Anderson has found himself since childhood. A path, he hopes, will someday include the NBA.
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“It’s just about gradual improvement,” Anderson said during a break at his Pueblo camp. “Your basketball career, if you’re lucky, hopefully is a journey. It’s not a sprint. So I just keep showing myself at every level.”
Anderson spent just two years at Arizona, playing in only one season after transferring from Boston College, but made a significant impact in that one season.
He averaged a double-double (15.3 points and 10.1 rebounds) in 2015-16 and was cited for some much-needed leadership.
Afterward, he received a taste of what it will take to make the NBA. Anderson was invited to the NBA’s seniors-only predraft camp in Portsmouth, Va., making the all-tournament team and, although he wasn’t taken in the June NBA draft, played for the Orlando Magic in the NBA Summer League.
Anderson averaged 5.8 points and 3.0 rebounds for the Magic, playing in 11.2 average minutes over four games. Former UA teammates Kaleb Tarczewski (3.0 points, 5.0 rebounds in 22 minutes per game for Washington) and Gabe York (9.8 points and 31.8 percent three-point shooting in 20.2 minutes per game for Charlotte) had somewhat bigger opportunities with their summer-league teams.
But if making an impression was difficult, Anderson still was grateful to be there.
“I thought the Magic really opened it up for all of us to show our abilities,” Anderson said. “It’s tough when you haven’t played with guys at all to show yourself in a setting like that, but I thought overall it was a great learning experience.”
Not only did Anderson say he was grateful to learn from the best players and coaches, but he also realized more than ever what making the NBA will take.
“I think it’s just identifying a specific skill,” he said. “So many guys in the NBA, they want to be the star, there’s so many players in the NBA who are good at just one skill. So I think for me, it’s harnessing my rebounding, showing them I can play defense at a high level and doing the little things to help teams win.
“I just want to try to just work on my own game and become a star in my own role, and hopefully I’ll find a place someday in the NBA. I still feel like I can play at that level.”
He’ll get a chance to show it while playing next season for the Antwerp Giants, the same club that former UA guard Kyle Fogg played for in 2014-15. Fogg used that season to leverage a spot in Germany last season and has now agreed to a deal with Malaga of Spain’s top-tier ACB.
It probably wouldn’t surprise Fogg to see Anderson taking a similar path through Antwerp.
“He’s gonna make a huge impact there,” Fogg said.
Anderson said he was happy he could lean on Fogg for advice about the team, the city and the competition.
“It turned out that it seemed like the best opportunity for me,” Anderson said. “I just reached out to a bunch of people, and Kyle was just letting me bounce off all sorts of questions about what it’s like over there.
“So he’s been a big help, and everyone I know says Belgium is a great place to play, and Antwerp is one of the greatest cities in Europe, so I’m really excited to be going out there.”
Rim shots
• Arizona players are scattering this week for a brief “summer break” while the second summer session winds up today. They won’t have to return until a day or two before the Aug. 22 start of fall semester classes.
• During the second summer session, the Wildcats had all current players in school and workouts except Finnish forward Lauri Markkanen, who was playing for his national team in the U20 European Championship, averaging 24.5 points a game and making the all-tournament team.
• Several of Arizona’s top recruiting targets in the class of 2017 — Alex Barcello, Daejon Davis and Ira Lee — have all included Arizona in their recent Twitter announcements of finalists. Barcello, a guard from Tempe’s Corona del Sol High School, also listed Butler, Stanford, Virginia and Indiana. Davis, a guard from Seattle, said he is also considering Washington, Stanford, Oregon and Gonzaga. Lee, a forward from Los Angeles, posted a list of nine finalists that included Cal, Oregon, Texas, USC, Oregon State, Kansas, Maryland and Georgia Tech.
