Long Beach Poly grad Ryan Anderson signs pro basketball deal in Belgium

Former Long Beach Poly and University of Arizona star Ryan Anderson has signed an inteational contract to begin his professional basketball career. Anderson, the 2011 Gatorade State Player of the Year for the Jackrabbits, has signed a deal with the Port of Antwerp Giants, putting him in one of Europe’s most stable hoops situations in Belgium.

“It’s been a crazy day, but a great one,” said Anderson after signing his deal over the weekend. “The beauty of the game of basketball is you can bring a kid from Long Beach to Belgium. There’s guys from everywhere there but the unifying factor of the team is that we all love basketball.”

Anderson has had a busy summer since graduating from Arizona, spending time with the Orlando Magic during the NBA Summer Pro League in Las Vegas before ultimately signing with Antwerp. He also recently hosted a basketball skills camp in Arizona, a first for him.

“Even only for a couple weeks to get to see what the dream feels like was great,” he said of playing with the Magic. “It’s really motivating. I’m excited to go to Belgium and continue my career, but the NBA is still the dream. This summer I leaed that there’s a lot to still lea. I’ve had a lot of success in high school and college, but I still need to grow.”

Anderson’s success in Long Beach is well known. He was the centerpiece player on Poly’s CIF-SS championship 2010-2011 team, one of the top teams in city history. Anderson’s star-studded Jackrabbits team went 31-2 overall and in a blowout win over Corona Centeial in the CIF championship, Anderson had a gaudy stat line of 18 points and 21 rebounds. The 6-foot-9 forward went on to ea All-Pac-12 honors his senior year with the Wildcats, averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds per game, with a double-double in 17 of his 33 games.

Anderson’s high school team was tight-knit, and it’s not surprising that he said two of his coaches from high school have remained a big part of his career. Specifically, he said his head coach Sharrief Metoyer and assistant AJ Diggs were instrumental in helping him through college and on to Belgium.

“The two biggest mentors in my life are AJ and Sharrief,” he said. “I leaned on them heavily during this process, I talk to them almost every day. It’s great knowing that they still care.”

Metoyer has since retired from coaching high school but remains a well-coected source, and a friend of his who coaches in Belgium helped answer some of Anderson’s questions about the lifestyle adjustment to playing inteationally. Diggs made the jump from a high school assistant to a professional assistant and spent last year coaching the San Antonio Spurs’ D-League team. He helped Anderson find an agent with inteational experience.

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“I’m really thankful to have those guys, there’s only one school where you have coaches like that and that’s Long Beach Poly,” said Anderson. “The network I had coming out of there is unbelievable.”

Not surprisingly, Metoyer spoke glowingly of Anderson and his accomplishments.

“He is very special to me, because he’s worked extremely hard to get to this point,” he said. “He will always mean a great deal to the Poly basketball program. And this is just the start of his jouey.”

Aside from the basketball side of life, Anderson is a cerebral graduate of Poly’s CIC academic magnet who’s looking forward to traveling inteationally.

“I can’t wait to travel,” he said. “You drive for an hour and you’re in another country, where as in SoCal you can drive for two hours and still be in LA.”

Anderson will leave Long Beach on Aug. 10 for a two-week training camp in Italy before begiing his pro career.