Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Swagger, Shot-Making & Spiders: Kendall Anthony joins Spiders Sound Off

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Swagger, Shot-Making & Spiders: Kendall Anthony joins Spiders Sound Off · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:05
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to Spider.
• 0:07
  Sound off. This is Tom.
• 0:08
  And this is Porter. And we are back for another
• 0:12
  episode this weekend. That's the post on Monday.
• 0:15
  But it wasn't a weekend of two wins, Porter.
• 0:19
  It was not, but I had a win. I had a win last night at
• 0:22
  Fleming's Steakhouse. The 11 oz filet was to die for.
• 0:27
  Did you see how one of our listeners posted to, I think
• 0:31
  might have been on Facebook and said like, hey, they have hot
• 0:33
  dogs at the Robin Center? I said hey, one of our listeners
• 0:36
  suggested I just I treat you to hot dogs at the Robin Center.
• 0:39
  I did not get a positive response out of.
• 0:42
  That yeah, yeah. I'll just point that out, I bet.
• 0:45
  Well, let's talk about the women for a second, man.
• 0:46
  They went to Davidson after a very close triple overtime game
• 0:49
  up here and again, really tight first half.
• 0:53
  We've been seeing that lately, but in the second-half
• 0:55
  absolutely blew the cover off of Davison for a dominant
• 0:59
  performance. Maggie hit 2000 points.
• 1:00
  Congratulations. No trip to George Mason for you
• 1:03
  and me to. No trip to see that to.
• 1:05
  See it but if you're living in the Fairfax area, make sure you
• 1:08
  get out and support them today because this episode will
• 1:11
  release on Monday and yeah the 39 in the net.
• 1:14
  They're right where they need to be to be in the conversation for
• 1:16
  net large. So Congrats to the ladies.
• 1:18
  Davidson was without, I think Katie Donovan, who's her best 3
• 1:20
  point shooter, but and we had Newell, which we didn't have in
• 1:23
  the first game, but it was a very encouraging game.
• 1:26
  To beat Davidson by 23 on their homecourt and hold them to a
• 1:29
  season low total and points was absolutely outstanding.
• 1:33
  And I love, I mean, the coach has been saying this for a
• 1:35
  couple of press conferences now when they've talked about this
• 1:37
  tough schedule we got as we've got George Mason on Monday and
• 1:41
  then we're at George Washington on Wednesday.
• 1:43
  And he'll get the question of like, how do you prepare for all
• 1:45
  those games? And part of his response is
• 1:48
  like, they have to prepare for us.
• 1:51
  I mean, George Mason had a game this weekend and now they have
• 1:55
  to play again on Monday and now they're home.
• 1:58
  So they have that advantage. But they still got to prepare
• 2:02
  for us. It's not just, you know, on us
• 2:04
  to figure this stuff out. Let's talk about VCU.
• 2:06
  So we did lose to VCU at home, as most of you probably all know
• 2:10
  by now. And like our game at the Seagull
• 2:12
  Center, we had a a really tough start, got further and further
• 2:16
  behind, then mounted a big comeback, but never could get to
• 2:20
  that. Furious comeback.
• 2:21
  Could never get to the league and never tie them up.
• 2:24
  Ended up down the whole game. And then in the last few
• 2:27
  minutes, you know, weren't, you know, ran out of steam it
• 2:29
  seemed. So we've lost four in a row now
• 2:32
  to DCU. We're two and eight in our last
• 2:35
  10. Not great, not great.
• 2:40
  But yeah, I mean, I give him credit for the comeback.
• 2:41
  I looked at on my phone real quickly during dinner.
• 2:44
  We were down 20 at half. I'm like, that's a that's going
• 2:46
  to be a disaster. But got home, we were down. 4I
• 2:49
  came in, turned it on right at the time the Beagle got the
• 2:52
  flagrant second flagrant 2, two games which I didn't really have
• 2:57
  any context into, but I just saw kind of us, you know, not not
• 3:01
  overcome the hump there towards the end.
• 3:03
  Yeah, I wonder too that but that moment as watching it is that it
• 3:07
  didn't seem like a flagrant, but then him and someone on the
• 3:10
  other team started jawn at each other.
• 3:12
  It resulted in the double technicals and then it was like,
• 3:15
  now we're going to the screen. It's one of those.
• 3:17
  I wonder if he had that hard foul but then like the, you
• 3:20
  know, walked away and there was none of that, you know, chest
• 3:23
  bumping sort of stuff with the ref even thought of like, hey, I
• 3:26
  got to go look at this again. It seemed like a foul just in
• 3:29
  the course of the game. But when you look at it in video
• 3:31
  you can see he hits him pretty hard.
• 3:33
  I wonder if it's not in the coach's scouting report against
• 3:36
  us. Now that Beagle, if you push him
• 3:38
  in certain ways, can you can push him too far.
• 3:41
  So we got to keep an eye out on that because, you know, 2 game,
• 3:43
  2 Flagrance in two games. First one I understood we were
• 3:46
  up huge. This one too close of too close
• 3:49
  of a game to to get in that in that situation.
• 3:51
  OK. So with that VCU loss and with,
• 3:54
  you know, us getting swept by them this year, I think we
• 3:57
  decided we need some spiders therapy.
• 3:59
  Therapy is good. It's kind of a therapy session.
• 4:02
  And so we are going to bring a guest to help us.
• 4:05
  So after this little legendary, yeah, legendary guest, this
• 4:09
  guest went two and one against VCU at home.
• 4:14
  And some of that was VCU wasn't always in the Atlantic tents.
• 4:17
  We didn't always play them two times a year.
• 4:20
  He beat them once at the Seagull Center.
• 4:22
  And we've only by look, we've only beaten them twice in the
• 4:25
  Seagull Center over our history and one of the only two times
• 4:31
  that we went two and O in the regular season against VCU.
• 4:36
  And just one more footnote before we introduce the new
• 4:38
  guest. All three times he beat VCU,
• 4:40
  they were top 25 team. So top 21 in the country.
• 4:44
  Those days seem to be in the past for VCU.
• 4:46
  So this was arguably kind of the best VCU teams that we've ever
• 4:51
  faced. You know, three times top 25 S
• 4:54
  We're going to learn about this player.
• 4:55
  We'll learn about his career and maybe he'll just cheer us up a
• 4:59
  bit. We could use that.
• 5:00
  Cheer is good. Hey Spider fans, today we have a
• 5:07
  treat. Our guest is one of the most
• 5:09
  electric players in Richmond Spiders history.
• 5:12
  Kendall Anthony. It's just some stats.
• 5:15
  If you don't know it, he's second all time and three
• 5:17
  pointers. He was first when Kendall when
• 5:20
  you left, but I guess Gilliard came and beat you on that.
• 5:24
  I think you're six all time in scoring and for my memory, one
• 5:29
  of the biggest shot makers ever. A lot of clutch shots during
• 5:33
  your time. So Kendall, welcome to Spiders.
• 5:35
  Sound off. Thank you for having me.
• 5:38
  Welcome, Kendall. We were talking right before we
• 5:40
  start recording, and Kendall's looks exactly the same, except
• 5:43
  for he's got kind of a nice little nice little bit of facial
• 5:46
  hair there, which probably is not slowing him down because I
• 5:48
  remember him as being about the one of the fastest spiders I've
• 5:50
  ever. Seen.
• 5:51
  Yeah, that's right. Well, thanks so much for joining
• 5:54
  us today. It's as we, as we kind of
• 5:55
  mentioned, it's a little bit of a therapy day.
• 5:56
  We lost to VCU last night in the Robin Center.
• 6:00
  So we're happy to have you on because you've got that
• 6:02
  reputation and that history of being one of the one of the VCU
• 6:05
  killers for us. Before we get started and all
• 6:07
  that, though, tell us a little bit about like what brought you
• 6:09
  to Richmond originally? You know, tell us about your
• 6:12
  recruiting story. Who else was after you and why
• 6:14
  did you choose Richmond? Oh, it's funny.
• 6:17
  So I played AAU basketball during my high school years and
• 6:21
  summers and when I played in Vegas, I had a pretty good show
• 6:25
  and I think I did really well in that tournament.
• 6:27
  And my my coach, my AU coach talked to Wadi who he called me
• 6:33
  and told me that Richmond was interested in me.
• 6:35
  And I never heard of Richmond. Honestly, I just I was like,
• 6:39
  wow, this is amazing. I got recruited a little bit
• 6:42
  coming out of that. I had a lot of I had a lot of
• 6:44
  mid majors, but not many authors.
• 6:47
  So I wasn't very sought after as far as like I major or even,
• 6:53
  like I said, midnight. I had a lot of interest, but not
• 6:55
  a lot of authors in Richmond called me, coached me again.
• 7:00
  They called me and told me when we come up for a visit.
• 7:02
  Then I got on the phone with Coach Moon and he told me he was
• 7:04
  very excited to have me for the visit.
• 7:06
  So a couple weeks later I end up going there to visit and I loved
• 7:11
  it. I fell in love with everything,
• 7:12
  the team, the coaches, It was just a great atmosphere.
• 7:17
  I loved the campus. We just do me.
• 7:20
  And so I ended up committing on my on my visit, which was a lot
• 7:28
  of people were very happy about that.
• 7:29
  Like I said, Coach Mooney was happy.
• 7:30
  He didn't even expect me to do that.
• 7:32
  I came in and told me I was like, I want to commit.
• 7:34
  I told my mother, she was with me.
• 7:36
  She was like, if you want to do this, go ahead, don't hesitate.
• 7:41
  And I knew for some reason, I just knew this man was the right
• 7:43
  place for me. But like I said, come.
• 7:45
  Yeah, like I said, coming in, I didn't I wasn't heavily
• 7:47
  recruited. I had a couple of mid maidens,
• 7:50
  maybe about four or five that were heavy on me but not really
• 7:55
  offering. And then also I had like a
• 7:58
  couple from high, maybe just like a little interest, but
• 8:01
  nothing that was coming through in stone.
• 8:03
  So Rishna was kind of the the the college that gave me
• 8:07
  opportunity. I'm I'm forever grateful for
• 8:09
  that. Now, when you came, I'm curious
• 8:11
  when you were visiting and kind of watched the team or got the
• 8:14
  practice with the team, that was Kevin Anderson was our point
• 8:19
  guard then. And I'm, I can imagine at least,
• 8:22
  but I'd love to hear the story of like watching him or playing
• 8:24
  with him and being like, hey, like I, I could see myself in
• 8:27
  those shoes. And he was graduating obviously
• 8:31
  before you got there. So how much did that help kind
• 8:33
  of seeing a successful guard like Kevin Anderson kind of on
• 8:37
  the team before you had to choose where to go?
• 8:40
  Yeah, You know, Kevin Anderson is like, I, I, I when I first
• 8:44
  got there, I heard so much about him before I even got there.
• 8:46
  They were telling me like, hey, we have this guard here.
• 8:49
  He's all American. He's great.
• 8:51
  He's he's small just like you. And I'm like, OK, let me
• 8:54
  actually see for myself. And when I got to actually see
• 8:58
  him in person and play, I was like, yeah, if this, if this is
• 9:02
  what they produce here, I'll probably need to come here.
• 9:05
  But actually meeting K is a totally different stuff.
• 9:08
  He's an amazing person. Like it's it's actually funny.
• 9:10
  I just saw him this past summer. I actually live in Atlanta now
• 9:14
  with my wife and he is actually in Atlanta right now.
• 9:18
  So I got to be around and talk to him, hang out with him.
• 9:21
  But like I said, I met him on the visit and like I said, he
• 9:24
  was amazing. Like he was a good person.
• 9:26
  He helped me a lot just talking to me, just telling me what to
• 9:29
  what if I come here, what to expect.
• 9:31
  So he's been very influential in my life.
• 9:34
  Like actually seeing him play how he played, I was like, I
• 9:36
  can, I think I could be, I could actually mold my game after him.
• 9:40
  And come to find out that we were too graceful in guards that
• 9:44
  way, that they do a lot of great things at the University of
• 9:46
  Richmond. Yeah, that's right.
• 9:48
  Like one thing when I think about you kind of watching you
• 9:50
  played in the Robin Center, like one thing I think maybe that you
• 9:54
  had that Kevin didn't have is I'll call it swagger.
• 9:58
  Like how how did did you develop that?
• 10:02
  Were you kind of like that in high school?
• 10:03
  Like it was just so fun to watch you.
• 10:05
  You'd make shots and like you, it would just like, it's hard to
• 10:09
  find what swagger means, but it kind of, it looked like you were
• 10:11
  having fun out there, that's for sure.
• 10:13
  Yeah, yeah. No, basketball was, you know,
• 10:15
  basketball is something that I find great Joy brings me peace.
• 10:21
  And you can kind of be yourself, I think.
• 10:22
  I think K had a little swag. I think he has a swag.
• 10:25
  But maybe for me it was just, it was just, it's just fun.
• 10:29
  It's just fun to be out there. It's just the opportunity.
• 10:31
  It's a blessing just to be out there.
• 10:32
  So I think during my time there, what really got me going was the
• 10:36
  crowd, like the Robert Center when it got packed and people
• 10:39
  come out to show, you know, cheer you on and they're yelling
• 10:43
  your name and they're happy when you make threes.
• 10:45
  It kind of motivates you to actually go out there and have a
• 10:48
  little fun and be a little bit loose.
• 10:50
  So for me, just having an opportunity and like I said,
• 10:54
  basketball is something that you have to find enjoyment and if
• 10:57
  you really want to be good at it.
• 10:58
  So that's where I think the swag came from.
• 11:00
  I think also in high school I was able to have that type of
• 11:03
  fun, especially because we were a winning program as well.
• 11:07
  That's awesome. You were.
• 11:09
  I kind of think of you as kind of a creative shot maker.
• 11:12
  You were a great creativity. Who did you model your style
• 11:15
  after when you were growing up? Oh, I was a Alan Odyssey fan for
• 11:18
  sure. That was like, that was every.
• 11:20
  That was that he was. Yeah.
• 11:22
  That was the guy from like if I had to take 11 goat.
• 11:25
  For me, that was Allen Iverson. We're going to get to that.
• 11:28
  We're going to get to Allen Iverson here in a minute.
• 11:29
  So stay keep that in mind, Spider fans, when we get when we
• 11:32
  get to the what have you been up to lately section.
• 11:34
  OK, as part of our therapy for the Spider fans who just, you
• 11:39
  know, saw us lose the VCU, I'd love to go back to kind of, for
• 11:44
  me, one of the most memorable games ever.
• 11:46
  Was that 2013 game against VCU your sophomore year?
• 11:52
  First kind of tell us about your that team kind of what that was
• 11:55
  your second year at U of R Kind of what was that?
• 11:57
  What was that team like for you? Kind of what what was your role
• 12:00
  and kind of who are The, Who are the the folks that kind of you
• 12:03
  really relied on as part of the success of that team?
• 12:05
  Oh, man, I got so many that honestly a whole team.
• 12:08
  It's crazy because you know, like I was like, we were very
• 12:12
  close side, you know, you have Cedric Lindsey, my backcourt
• 12:15
  mate that was like, that was like the guy, you know, for me,
• 12:19
  he was someone that motivated me to play on a higher level
• 12:22
  because of just for his play. Damn brothers.
• 12:25
  You know, he was a shot maker. Like if you wanted a shot to be
• 12:28
  made a three pointer, DB was the guy that that made that made us
• 12:33
  go, especially when he got to going, he got hot.
• 12:36
  But you have also, you have Trey, you have Alonzo.
• 12:39
  I I can keep going down the line like these guys are people you
• 12:42
  wanted to play with. So that type, that team, I
• 12:45
  wasn't surprised we were able to do that, be able to come back
• 12:48
  because we were so close. Like I said, we were so close
• 12:51
  coming in that great guys like Wayne, you had great guys like
• 12:56
  man, even to the to the walk on. She had Zach Chu who's coaching
• 12:59
  at rapper now. Like it's just that that type of
• 13:02
  team is a team that you want to go to war with.
• 13:04
  And that was, I think that's what pushed us over that hump
• 13:07
  during a time where probably people didn't think it was
• 13:09
  possible to come back from 7 down with like 37 seconds left,
• 13:13
  like, yeah. Before we get into that, I want
• 13:15
  I want to relive that a bit, but just to remind Spider fans like
• 13:19
  that VCU team had three players that played in the pros.
• 13:22
  They had Trevion, Graham, Troy Daniels, Briante Webber.
• 13:26
  This was the shock of Smart, maybe his best team ever.
• 13:30
  They were top 25. They I think they might have 16
• 13:34
  on the AP or something like that when they came here.
• 13:38
  So this was, you know, VCU at its best coming to the Robin
• 13:42
  Center and like you said, down seven with 20 plus seconds left.
• 13:49
  Replay that story for us, kind of how we took that game into
• 13:52
  overtime. Oh, man.
• 13:54
  So I remember we were down. I remember being in the huddle.
• 13:58
  We're not going to lose this game.
• 13:59
  And I think I think they actually believe me, I know it's
• 14:02
  not. It might have been a little
• 14:04
  delusional to a lot of people at the time.
• 14:05
  They're probably like, all right, Kendall, like, but at the
• 14:08
  same time, like those are the games, especially when you play
• 14:10
  a caliber team like VCU. It's like one of those games
• 14:13
  where if you're if you are able to make it possible and and you
• 14:17
  can come back, it's one it's going to be 111.
• 14:20
  Great story. And I think for for us it was
• 14:24
  like just the belief we had in ourselves.
• 14:26
  Like like I said, said coming down, I think they missed a free
• 14:30
  throw and said it said found me on the side and I hit the three.
• 14:35
  And then I told him again right after we had the foul again.
• 14:38
  And I remember having the foul again.
• 14:40
  And then I told him I came to him.
• 14:41
  I said, just find me again, like I'm going to be in the same
• 14:43
  spot. And he told me.
• 14:44
  He said, me, I got you. And I think I want to say Troy
• 14:48
  Daniels or somebody missed the free throw or he might have
• 14:52
  made. Yeah, I think he I think he
• 14:54
  missed the free throw and then he found me and I got fouled and
• 14:56
  approved. So that would that put us, I
• 15:00
  want to say put us down, down to at the time or down 3.
• 15:06
  And then I want to say, you know, we were down 2 and then we
• 15:09
  had to follow the game. And then I think somebody hit a
• 15:12
  one-on-one and that's when we ran the play to try to find me,
• 15:17
  couldn't find me, end up finding Darren and Darren hit the three.
• 15:21
  That was like, that was the biggest shot that that
• 15:24
  catapulted us to another level. And like I said, when you need a
• 15:27
  shot at that time, Darren Brothers was our guy.
• 15:30
  Like he was the guy that was like, hey, we need a big shot.
• 15:34
  We're going to go to Darien and we know regardless of the
• 15:36
  defense, he's going to be able to get a shot off so.
• 15:39
  You know, it's funny, I think about last night's game, there
• 15:42
  was a moment we are way behind. We had this big comeback, we cut
• 15:45
  it to 2. And I remember like the emotions
• 15:47
  of me were like, is this going to happen again?
• 15:50
  And I'm reflecting back to the Darien brothers, you know, 3
• 15:53
  pointer to put us into overtime. Unfortunately, it didn't happen,
• 15:56
  but that was certainly a magical moment.
• 15:59
  Take him into overtime and then obviously winning in overtime.
• 16:04
  Is that one of your kind of favorite memories as terms of
• 16:07
  games during U of R? Yeah, and it's funny because Jay
• 16:10
  de Mayo, our strength coach, he nevertheless me forget it.
• 16:13
  So it's it's special. Like I like I said, those are
• 16:17
  memories that you have with a great group of guys coaches
• 16:20
  forever. Like you can go back, sit down
• 16:23
  after 10-15 years, 20 years and talk about those times and still
• 16:27
  remember it like detail for detail.
• 16:30
  So it's something special that I hold dear and it shows how close
• 16:35
  we were as a team to be able to do something like that with a
• 16:38
  deficit like that. Now Fast forward to your senior
• 16:42
  season with the team, went 121 games or 2114.
• 16:47
  You beat VCU twice. And it's funny, like they had
• 16:50
  three pros as well, although one of them was MO Ali Cox, who
• 16:54
  ended up being a pro in the NFL. But yeah, you went to the
• 16:59
  Seagull Centre first. They were 14.
• 17:02
  I think AP ranked 14th that year.
• 17:06
  So what does it take to win? And like you're, you're on one
• 17:09
  of two teams, that one at the Seagull Center, like what does
• 17:12
  it take to win there? Because obviously that's a,
• 17:15
  that's a tough environment. That's a great question.
• 17:19
  I think you can't, you can't play their game.
• 17:22
  You play their game, you're probably you'll probably don't
• 17:24
  have the best chance of winning. And I think a lot of teams,
• 17:27
  they're able to push teams to play their game a lot.
• 17:32
  I think when we were there, I think when I was there, we had
• 17:36
  a, we had guards that can control the pace, but we also
• 17:40
  had forwards and bigs that could do everything.
• 17:43
  I think that's what helped us a lot.
• 17:45
  And like I said, playing our game, it was like we controlled
• 17:48
  the pace. We, you know, we didn't really
• 17:50
  try to go up and down with them. That's a, it's a, we probably
• 17:52
  could have in some form or fashion.
• 17:55
  But playing their game at the Siegel Center when they had
• 17:58
  Beyoncé, Webber, like I said, Melvin Johnson and Juan Lewis,
• 18:03
  Trevion Graham, like those guys, it's those are pros, like all of
• 18:07
  those are pros. So to be to play against those
• 18:10
  guys, you have to be able to play your game.
• 18:12
  And I think Coach Mooney and the coaching staff get a great job
• 18:15
  or just let of like getting us prepared.
• 18:17
  I think like the preparation for those games, you never really
• 18:20
  can prepare totally, but you can get an understanding.
• 18:24
  They actually during our practice, they put six to seven
• 18:26
  guys out there to play us. So we had to control the game
• 18:30
  playing against six or seven guys.
• 18:31
  So I think that was something interesting that helped us.
• 18:34
  It was like, OK, we can play against six or seven guys.
• 18:37
  We should be able to control the game with five guys regardless
• 18:40
  of how fast strong they are. So that was how I would say we
• 18:44
  like. Speaking of Coach Mooney, we had
• 18:46
  him on a recent episode and I don't remember if you said this
• 18:49
  on the episode or after when we were talking to him, but he said
• 18:52
  Kendall Anthony is one of the toughest kids I've ever coached.
• 18:54
  He's earned every bit of accolade or congratulation he
• 18:57
  gets. There's no one that has worked
• 18:58
  harder her or put himself out there more.
• 19:01
  Tell us about where you got that tough, that toughness, and that
• 19:03
  work ethic from. Oh, it's like, honestly, it's
• 19:10
  funny because I feel like my mother and still didn't need to
• 19:13
  be a hard worker. My family, my grandfather was
• 19:18
  very influential in basketball for me, but also like I grew up
• 19:22
  with in Jackson, TN, it's like there's nothing out there in
• 19:25
  Jackson but to play sports, basketball, football, and you
• 19:29
  grow up playing against older people.
• 19:31
  So you go to the YMCA or you go to local recreational games and
• 19:36
  you're not going to play against people your age or they're not
• 19:38
  going to just you have to earn your respect.
• 19:40
  And I feel like for me, when I came in, when I was in high
• 19:45
  school, when I all the way growing up, I had to earn people
• 19:47
  respect, especially cooking my size.
• 19:49
  So I want to say it, that's what really molded me.
• 19:52
  It's kind of like being from there and just having to earn
• 19:55
  your your respect every day, not just, oh, I had a good day
• 19:58
  today. I played pretty well and I got
• 20:00
  picked up. No, like the next day it's the
• 20:02
  same thing. Like you got to come out there,
• 20:04
  you probably going to get fouled.
• 20:06
  There's no fouls when we play so.
• 20:08
  That type of environment you grow up in, it kind of molds you
• 20:12
  for those moments of playing in college basketball.
• 20:14
  When Coach Mooney has that compliment saying like, hey,
• 20:17
  he's tough. I feel like it's just something
• 20:18
  that was I was already molded with and I just brought that to
• 20:21
  the team in order to help him win.
• 20:24
  Hey, what maybe last kind of VCU therapy part.
• 20:27
  So and back to that toughness. So the last game during the
• 20:31
  regular season against VCU at home, we won in overtime, but
• 20:36
  this was kind of a little opposite of the other game where
• 20:38
  we had the lead. They came back and then probably
• 20:42
  going to overtime was a disappointment.
• 20:44
  And so I don't know if you could take me back to that or just
• 20:47
  tell the like, how do you get yourself and the team like ready
• 20:50
  to you know, it's 00 when you go into overtime, But if you had
• 20:53
  the lead and lost it, like how do you get your team to forget
• 20:57
  that and kind of move on? Because obviously it worked
• 20:59
  because you, you won that game, I think a double overtime.
• 21:02
  Yeah, basketball is up and down. You know, like especially when
• 21:04
  you playing a team like VCU, it's just you have to be
• 21:08
  prepared for the up and down. Like I said, some teams you
• 21:10
  play, you might be like, OK, well we're down.
• 21:12
  Like this shouldn't have happened.
• 21:13
  But the VCU, you're never out of it.
• 21:15
  Like they're never out of the game.
• 21:16
  So honestly, we expected them to fight back.
• 21:20
  Like, like I said, that's a team that fights back and like you
• 21:22
  can tell over the years that that's how they mold, that's how
• 21:25
  they're that's their that's their way of playing basketball.
• 21:29
  Like they're always going to find a way to creep back in.
• 21:31
  So for us it was just stay calm, like coach Mooney, always like,
• 21:35
  you know, next play, you know, be ready to for the for to be
• 21:40
  able to attack the next play. And I think I want to say Trey
• 21:44
  found TJ to go back to go for for in the inbound play to to to
• 21:50
  go into overtime. And I think those type of plays
• 21:52
  from guys that like all were our leaders.
• 21:55
  Like I said, Trey was a leader. TJ was going to his own at
• 21:58
  Richmond. This is for TJ was having triple
• 22:01
  double S So this is TJ. Yeah.
• 22:03
  So this is TJ. Yeah, exactly.
• 22:06
  So this is TJ who was growing into the great spider that he
• 22:10
  was going to be, and I think he was ready for that moment.
• 22:13
  And I think, like I said, when you have a team that's ready for
• 22:15
  the moment and trust each other, it makes it a little easier.
• 22:19
  Enough times you kind of like expect something good to happen.
• 22:22
  Like you never really expect like, oh, we're just going to
• 22:24
  give in. So talking to the guys, they
• 22:26
  were easy to talk to. Getting them on the same page is
• 22:29
  easy. And I like I said, I think that
• 22:31
  that has a lot to do with everybody being on the same page
• 22:36
  and also the coaches preaching to us next play.
• 22:41
  Kendall, give us one thing for our listeners about playing
• 22:44
  under Coach Mooney that the fans wouldn't understand unless they
• 22:48
  were on the team. He loves you like a son, like
• 22:53
  literally he loves you like a son.
• 22:55
  Like he would do anything for you like outside of basketball.
• 22:59
  And I think a lot of people think like when you're a coach,
• 23:02
  you just, you love the, your players just for what they could
• 23:04
  do for you, how they perform, You know, if they do well,
• 23:08
  you're like, like he literally cares about how your family
• 23:11
  does. Like he's a family man.
• 23:14
  I, I love looking for that. He actually, you know, I'm very
• 23:17
  close to his family. You know, now his son is in high
• 23:21
  school. It's crazy because I saw him
• 23:23
  when I saw Danny when he was like little, I mean tiny, tiny.
• 23:28
  So Coach Moody is one of those coaches that embodies the idea
• 23:34
  of family man, but also to a team.
• 23:36
  Like he invited us for dinner. Like I said, I was far away from
• 23:39
  Tennessee when I was playing there.
• 23:41
  So for him to invite me to dinner to make me feel warm and
• 23:45
  like Thanksgiving when I couldn't be there with my family
• 23:48
  or, you know, Christmas things or New Year's, it was like it
• 23:51
  was like, wow, you actually care about me as a human being rather
• 23:54
  than me just, you know, scoring points for you, for your team.
• 23:58
  And I think that's a little thing that people, I don't want
• 24:03
  to say take for granted, but they they might not understand
• 24:05
  unless they were inside. Yeah, we saw that, too when we
• 24:10
  first interviewed him, but this was before we actually had him
• 24:12
  on the show last summer. You know, he could be.
• 24:15
  Yeah, But we watch practice and he's tough in practice, man,
• 24:17
  He's tough. But then, like, you sit down
• 24:19
  with him afterwards and you start talking about the players
• 24:21
  and he just, he waxes poetic about how much the players mean
• 24:25
  to him. So you definitely, we felt, we
• 24:26
  felt that when we first talked to him.
• 24:28
  So let's we'll move past VCU and Kendall.
• 24:31
  We'd love to learn more about what you're doing now.
• 24:34
  I know we're we're talking with you, you in Brazil.
• 24:37
  So maybe tell a little bit about kind of your Brazil playing days
• 24:40
  and then we can go back to kind of really your whole post U of R
• 24:44
  career. Yeah, this is my third year out
• 24:48
  in Brazil. I played two years prior, my
• 24:51
  second year out and my third year out of college.
• 24:55
  And now just being able to come back and be in this beautiful
• 24:57
  country was amazing. Like I'm in my 11th year
• 25:00
  playing, which is like, I feel a little old now, but no, it's,
• 25:05
  it's something that you can't take for granted.
• 25:07
  Like I know it's a little cold back home, probably where
• 25:10
  everybody is, but right now I'm kind of in the, I don't want to
• 25:13
  brag, but I'm in, I'm in a place where it's very sunny all the
• 25:16
  time. It's probably the hottest.
• 25:18
  So I, for me to be able to be out here and still do what I
• 25:21
  love and continue to be on this journey that God has blessed me
• 25:25
  with, I'm, I'm super dope for like we were in the middle of
• 25:29
  the season doing pretty well. We'd like I said, it's just one
• 25:33
  of those things that you just you wake up every morning, you
• 25:36
  look forward to, especially playing here.
• 25:38
  This is the fact that you're able to be in a place that has
• 25:41
  so much history with basketball and sports.
• 25:44
  So I've enjoyed it a lot. And you, you mentioned before we
• 25:48
  started the pod, you have a a teammate Spider fans might,
• 25:52
  might know. Yeah, yes.
• 25:54
  So it's crazy. I when I first signed here, I
• 25:57
  got a call. Well, I got a call from
• 25:58
  somebody. I'm like, who's this?
• 26:00
  And he was like, you know, it was Melvin Johnson.
• 26:02
  I'm like Melvin Johnson from VCU.
• 26:05
  And come to find out that we're we're teammates here.
• 26:07
  So it's it's how it's crazy how small the world is like, and
• 26:11
  he's a great player. Like even after college, like
• 26:14
  you see him in college and you see him scoring and do all this,
• 26:16
  but like he's a great player but even better person.
• 26:19
  So for me it was like, OK, cool. Like, you know, being able to be
• 26:24
  here. And like I said, we had we
• 26:26
  shared like college moments and even yesterday I'm like, wow,
• 26:29
  y'all got us. You know, we had a brief talk
• 26:31
  about it today actually. We had practice today and I had
• 26:34
  to, you know, give them their flowers that they they end up
• 26:37
  beating us. But I didn't really want to.
• 26:39
  But for him, for him, I was like, man, you know, that was a
• 26:42
  that was a game. That was a great game.
• 26:44
  So it's yeah. Kendall for for For Spider fans
• 26:48
  who aren't as familiar with the international game in Brazil,
• 26:51
  tell us about like, what a typical travel arrangement looks
• 26:53
  like. Are you guys flying from city to
• 26:54
  city to play games? Are you busting?
• 26:56
  How does that work? Yeah.
• 26:57
  So I'm in Capita Grande, so it's like in the north a little bit.
• 27:00
  So we fly places. So we just flew to San Paulo
• 27:04
  like literally 3 days ago. So I just flew back to San Paul
• 27:08
  a few days ago. So we fly a lot.
• 27:11
  Like I said, we go on a road trip.
• 27:12
  We're flying most of the time, but it's different.
• 27:15
  A lot of places, a lot of teams are in Sao Paulo and Rio.
• 27:19
  So sometimes if you're in those type of places, you don't really
• 27:22
  have to fly as much. You can kind of drive.
• 27:25
  It might be a couple hours or like I said, you might have to,
• 27:31
  you might be outside of San Paulo.
• 27:32
  San Paulo is like a big state. Like people know it's like one
• 27:36
  of the biggest states in the in the world.
• 27:37
  So to drive around it might take about 3 to 4 hours.
• 27:42
  But also like it just depends on where you're at.
• 27:45
  Like I said, every country is different.
• 27:46
  Like if you play places, you might have some places that have
• 27:50
  11 hour bus rides, but also you have some places that might say,
• 27:53
  hey, we don't want to drive, we're going to fly.
• 27:56
  So yeah, it just depends. But here we fly a lot.
• 27:58
  Do you have a favorite place? Let's put Brazil aside because
• 28:02
  you're already there. Other other places you played
• 28:04
  which you look back and say like that was the most beautiful part
• 28:07
  of the world. But I tell, I tell everybody, I
• 28:09
  said Israel is probably one of my favorite places to play.
• 28:12
  And it's crazy because I saw TJ flying out there a lot.
• 28:14
  Like I said, TJ was out there. He played in Israel when I was
• 28:18
  playing out there. And then he's actually in Israel
• 28:20
  right now. But during my time when I was in
• 28:23
  Israel, he was playing there. And so I would say it was one of
• 28:28
  the places that I was. I was like close to Tel Aviv.
• 28:31
  I was like probably 15 minutes away.
• 28:32
  I was in Hersaluya. So that's one place I love
• 28:35
  playing. And then I love to play in
• 28:39
  France, where France was like as far as like competition,
• 28:42
  basketball competition, it's like top 2, so.
• 28:47
  You were in Turkey at one point in time, and you earned the
• 28:50
  nickname the Turkish Allen Iverson to bring it back to to.
• 28:54
  AI for a second my first year out.
• 28:56
  We'll call him the original AI right before before modern.
• 28:59
  I ain't gonna take that much good.
• 29:02
  So tell us a little bit about that.
• 29:04
  Where what? What happened to Turkey that
• 29:06
  kind of earned you that nickname?
• 29:07
  Nah, it's I was. That was my wrecking year.
• 29:10
  It's so it's OK. That's laughing like that's so
• 29:12
  long ago. Amazing city.
• 29:15
  I was in Izmir. We had, you know, coming in,
• 29:18
  it's like there was a guy named in a bit another club that
• 29:22
  played his name was Bobby Dixon. He was like the guy over there.
• 29:25
  He was like my height, but he had made a name for it.
• 29:27
  So for so long over there. And one day I was at, I was
• 29:33
  walking, I was actually walking to the mall to go get something
• 29:35
  to eat and somebody called me Bobby Dixon.
• 29:37
  I'm like, but at the end of the day, that's a compliment because
• 29:41
  he's the guy that established yourself as a great player in
• 29:43
  Turkey. But during my first couple
• 29:47
  games, I had a lot of games. So I scored a lot of points.
• 29:50
  Like I, I had one MVP and one of the tournaments to start the
• 29:55
  season. And then the first games I had a
• 29:58
  lot of good games. I probably had a couple 20 point
• 30:01
  games. And then so a lot of the fans at
• 30:05
  my club, they started calling me the Turkish Allen Iverson.
• 30:08
  And I was like funny to me at the time because I, I was, I
• 30:11
  wasn't expecting that. It was something that like they
• 30:14
  were like, you know, they started chanting a little bit at
• 30:16
  the game and I was like, it, it, I was like flattered by it, but
• 30:20
  I was like, wow, like that's what they think of me right
• 30:23
  here. And this is my first year.
• 30:24
  So I'm like, is this, does this happen everywhere?
• 30:27
  But it was it was one of those things that you're you're kind
• 30:30
  of like, wow, this is amazing that the fact that people
• 30:33
  actually look at you and admire your skill set and can compare
• 30:37
  you to someone of that caliber by call you their Turkish Allen
• 30:40
  Iverson. But to even have me in the same
• 30:43
  put put his name in the same sentence as mine as a
• 30:46
  compliment. Well, it had to feel good after
• 30:47
  you modeled your career after his playing style.
• 30:49
  Too. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:50
  Shows you did it, you did it right.
• 30:52
  Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, You've played in
• 30:55
  lots of different places across the globe.
• 30:57
  What is the process like of kind of finding the next place?
• 31:00
  If you had an agent all along that's kind of helping you kind
• 31:03
  of guide that that path? Yeah, yeah.
• 31:06
  So, so I have an agent, great guy.
• 31:09
  You have a great relationship. That's my that's my guy.
• 31:12
  Like I said, he puts me in position to to play and continue
• 31:15
  my journey playing basketball. So every year is different.
• 31:18
  It's I've never know actually. It's actually crazy, like I wake
• 31:21
  up one day and I could have an offer in Turkey, I could have an
• 31:24
  offer in Italy. I never, you never know.
• 31:27
  So it's one of those things where you just focus on what you
• 31:31
  can't control. And your agent kind of had a
• 31:34
  kind of direct you in the right place and tells you what he
• 31:36
  thinks about this offer coming in, this offer coming in.
• 31:40
  And we, we've done a good job over the years.
• 31:43
  Like I said, I, I was able to get with him halfway through my
• 31:45
  career. So he's been with me this last
• 31:48
  half and it's been nothing but great.
• 31:50
  Like I've been, I played in seven different countries, I've
• 31:54
  toured the world, like I've been able to see things that I never
• 31:56
  thought basketball would be able to take me to.
• 31:59
  So I'm super blessed. And like I said, for him to be
• 32:02
  able to put me in position to be able to continue my career, I
• 32:07
  have all the the praise and thanks for for him to be able to
• 32:11
  continue to help me on my journey.
• 32:14
  That's awesome. If you could give a piece of
• 32:16
  advice to today's Richmond guards about surviving a long
• 32:20
  season, what would you tell them?
• 32:24
  This control, which you can control and and the thing about
• 32:28
  stay consistent and and your positive thinking, like I said,
• 32:32
  there's going to be times in basketball where it doesn't go
• 32:36
  your way. But if you continue to put in
• 32:38
  the work and continue to stay focused and consistent in
• 32:42
  everything you do, I promise to become a run like And also, I
• 32:46
  think when you're a guard at Richmond, there's a lot on your
• 32:51
  hands. Like like coach money puts a lot
• 32:53
  of trust in me. So when that with with that,
• 32:57
  that comes with a lot of responsibility, which come in
• 32:59
  fact comes with a lot of hard work and dedication to the
• 33:02
  program. And I think I've heard great
• 33:04
  things for about the guards as I've gone over the years from
• 33:08
  Jacob Gilliard to even the guards now, it's like everybody
• 33:12
  puts in the work. And I think don't, don't try to
• 33:16
  win the win the race in one day. Like I said, just continue to
• 33:20
  trust the process that he has. Continue to focus on what you
• 33:23
  need to focus on. And I think things will turn
• 33:27
  around in a positive way because that's what happened with me.
• 33:30
  That's awesome. Hey, maybe just a way to kind of
• 33:34
  wrap this up like, you know, you're, you're a legend in my
• 33:37
  mind. Like how do you want, how do you
• 33:39
  want fans to, to remember you? So we'll obviously you got all
• 33:43
  the stats, but put the stats aside kind of when fans look
• 33:46
  back to kind of Kendall Anthony's career, like what do
• 33:49
  you what do you want that memory to to be like?
• 33:53
  Honestly, I just want people to Remember Me as one of those
• 33:58
  players that play for the name and the fun and not the bet.
• 34:02
  Like that was one thing that I really and by like I, I love,
• 34:05
  which was like, I'll, I'm telling you, like I thank God
• 34:08
  every day that I'm able I was able to play with.
• 34:10
  It was the best one. The best it was actually, I
• 34:12
  would say other than marrying my wife, it was the best decision
• 34:15
  for my life. So like I had to have that
• 34:20
  opportunity to wear the colors and represent the university.
• 34:24
  And still to this day, people under your name is like special
• 34:27
  to me. And it would be something that I
• 34:28
  always did. Even after my career, when I'm
• 34:30
  said and done, I'm retired, I'll be able to come back to Richmond
• 34:35
  and I still have, like I said, still have I'm able to have
• 34:38
  friends and people I'm very close to that came from
• 34:41
  Richmond. So if any, if they can remember
• 34:43
  one thing I would say, Kendall was a player that never shield
• 34:47
  away from the challenge or did everything he could to make sure
• 34:52
  he was prepared, you know, to help his team win and play for
• 34:54
  the the name on the front and after that.
• 34:57
  And I'll just say as a fan, I mean, from lightly recruited to
• 35:01
  six all time in Richmond points to being able to hit the big
• 35:05
  shot to win the big game. And then if you just we just
• 35:08
  lightly touched on your post Richmond career.
• 35:11
  But I mean, there's some serious accolades in it, folks.
• 35:13
  Google Kendall Anthony and what happened after Richmond and
• 35:15
  you'll see he's got nicknames all over the globe about how
• 35:19
  good he was in Brazil. And maybe there was a nice
• 35:22
  Icelandic piece of the journey too.
• 35:23
  I mean, there was all kinds of great stuff.
• 35:25
  So appreciate you being a Richmond Spider.
• 35:27
  Appreciate you coming on the podcast with Tom and I.
• 35:30
  And good luck the rest of the way, man.
• 35:32
  And whenever you're in Richmond, you know, look us up.
• 35:34
  We'd love to just say hi to you and thank you in person.
• 35:37
  Thank you so much. Thanks for having me and I look
• 35:39
  forward to to being able to see this podcast in the future too.
• 35:43
  Yeah. Thanks, Kendall.
• 35:44
  Thanks, Kendall. Appreciate you.
• 35:48
  Well, that was just a great interview with Kendall Anthony,
• 35:50
  both a legend for what he did at Richmond on the court, but also
• 35:54
  what he's done after Richmond playing internationally.
• 35:57
  I mean, that guy's had an incredibly impressive career.
• 35:59
  Yeah, I will say, obviously it's kind of the first time I've ever
• 36:02
  got to talk to Kendall Anthony and I loved him as a player.
• 36:06
  I like him even more now after that conversation.
• 36:08
  What a great guy. Would love to meet him in person
• 36:11
  at some point and just kind of talk about the, the, the his
• 36:15
  days as a spider. That was awesome.
• 36:18
  Well, we're going to wrap this thing up.
• 36:20
  We do have a few games this week.
• 36:21
  So just to remind you fans, the women kind of continue this
• 36:25
  tough road trip Monday at George Mason at 4:00 PM.
• 36:28
  So if you're home from work for the holiday, don't forget that
• 36:32
  game. It's at 4:00 PM.
• 36:33
  And then on Wednesday they're at George Washington.
• 36:36
  I assume they're staying up there between games.
• 36:40
  And the men are at Davidson on Wednesday, so hopefully Coach
• 36:45
  can get them as ready as possible.
• 36:48
  And and let's not start another losing losing streak.
• 36:51
  Let's well, a chance, a chance to also maybe get a little
• 36:54
  payback for the Davidson debacle in the Robinson or that would be
• 36:57
  good. Yeah, let's hope our teams go
• 36:59
  two and oh, at Davidson, yes, with the women having their big
• 37:02
  win. So we'll be back later this week
• 37:04
  to talk about those games. Make sure you give us a like,
• 37:06
  subscribe, share with a friend and if you guys have a spider
• 37:09
  story you want us to cover, don't don't fail.
• 37:11
  Don't hesitate to hit us up on the socials.
• 37:13
  Send us an e-mail, that kind. Of thing.
• 37:14
  Well, until next time, this is Tom.
• 37:16
  And this is Porter. And this is spiders sounding up.