Ryan Anderson Talks about AD

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Dave Zarum: You’ve been a teammate of Davis’s for three years now. What were your first impressions of him, and how have they changed over the years, if at all?

Ryan Anderson: Anthony is such a gifted athlete, a freak of nature. You can tell. You can see his ability. When I first started playing with him, from watching him in college and what I’d learned about him, he was such a great shot-blocker, low-post scorer. But when he first started with us in the NBA, it really surprised me how well he could finish around the basket and how good his touch was; he was hitting shots from all over the court, consistently, and I didn’t really see that before. I remember talking to him about that a lot in his rookie year, and he told me that he just didn’t have to [shoot] in college. His job was catching alley-oops, running the floor and getting easy buckets.

It’s just been unbelievable watching him over the years. Obviously the way he’s improved each year is impressive, but this is such a mental game and to see the maturity he has in his approach over the years continues to surprise and amaze me. It surpasses so many other players that I’ve played with. He just has that ability to not let anything faze him. I think his rookie year the big thing for him was consistency, going out and figuring out how to score every night. It’s crazy. You look at the scoreboard and, out of nowhere, he’s got 28 points and 12 rebounds, and you just realize that now this guy does it night in and night out with ease, and that’s a special thing to watch firsthand.

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