Sport: Basketball
Born: September 20, 1993
Town: North Bergen, New Jersey
Kyle Forman Anderson was born September 20, 1993 in New York City and grew up in North Bergen, NJ. The Andersons were an athletic family. Kyle’s grandfather, Cliff Anderson, was a track and football star at Indiana and played pro ball for the Cardinals and Giants and coached both sports for 18 years at Eastern Shore. Cliff named his son Kyle after teammate Kyle Rote. Kyle’s father was a basketball star at Glassboro State and later became a successful high-school coach. He passed down the family name of Kyle to his son, the youngest of five kids.
Kyle’s brothers, sisters, uncles and cousins were all elite athletes. Kyle began playing basketball as a toddler and excelled as a quarterback in youth-league football. He led his AAU basketball teams to the Under-12 and Under-14 national championships and was the nation’s top-rated point guard coming out of eighth grade. Tall and agile, Kyle possessed the ball-handling skills and defensive anticipation of a guard, but grew to 6’5” by the time his freshman season beganl and was moved up to forward. He played two seasons of varsity ball for Paterson Catholic and then moved to St. Anthony’s in Jersey City after PCHS closed.
As a junior and senior playing for Bob Hurley, Kyle never lost a game. The Friars were a perfect 65-0 and Hurley called Kyle the heart and soul of the team. As a 6’8” senior in 2011–12, he led St. Anthony’s in scoring and was named state Player of the Year.
Although he was recruited as a small forward, Kyle still viewed himself as a point guard. Indeed, his passing skills were regarded as his #1 asset. When it came time to sort through scholarship offers, he chose UCLA because of coach Ben Howard’s track record of developing NBA point guards. Kyle played two years for the Bruins before entering the NBA draft in 2014. In his first year with Bruins, he ended up playing forward and pulled off a rare double, finishing among the PAC-12 leaders in both rebounds and assists. As a freshman he was the first UCLA player since Bill Walton with 300 rebounds and 100 assists in a season. As a sophomore under new coach Steve Alford, Kyle moved back to point guard and led the Bruins to the PAC-12 Tournament title, earning tourney MVPs in a finals upset of #4 ranked Arizona. Kyle became the first player in conference history with more than 200 assists and rebounds in the same season and, at season’s end, he was voted team MVP. He was named first-team All Pac-12 and was a third-team All-American.
Kyle’s solid all-around game made him an attractive pick as an NBA role player, but some questioned he would be much more than that. He was not a big scorer and he did not have the quickness of a pro point guard. Kyle often joked that he was the only athlete in his family without blinding speed; his nickname was “Slo-Mo.” Nevertheless, the Spurs—coming off an NBA championship—grabbed him at the end of the first round. It was actually a good situation. San Antonio had many veterans on the roster and coach Gregg Popovich gave them plenty of rest. Kyle saw a lot of minutes as a rookie, especially while Kawhi Leonard recovered from a hand injury. He split the season between the San Antonio bench and the Spurs’ D-League team.
Kyle continued to chip in rebounds, steals and assists in 2015–16 and 2016–17 for San Antonio as a resere. In 2017–18 he played his way into the starting lineup and established himself as one of the NBA’s best defensive stoppers. He also shot over 50% from the field.
In 2018, the Memphis Grizzlies signed Kyle as a free agent. They envisioned him as a point forward and he excelled in this role. In his first game against his old team, Kyle scored nine points and nine rebounds in a 104–103 victory. A shoulder injury ended his season after 43 games, but he returned to the lineup in 2019–20 and became a starter in 2020–21. That season, Kyle produced career-highs with 12.4 points and 3.6 assists per game, with 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals. His ability to step up and fill whatever role the Grizzlies needed was n ore evident than in an overtime win against the Nets. Ja Morant, the team’s young star, went down early with an injury and Kyle scored 28 points.
The Grizzlies shuffled the deck in 2021–22 and moved Kyle back to a Sixth Man role, with fellow New Jerseyan Jaren Jackson logging big minutes. Kyle became free agent after the playoffs and signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves. In addition to an occasional start, he proved to be a productive sub for coach Chris Finch, providing valuable minutes in place of veteran Karl-Anthony Towns and young guns Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards.