University of Richmond Athletics
Kendall Anthony: The Leader, The Captain, The Man
03/07/2015 | Men's Basketball
THE LEADER. THE CAPTAIN. THE MAN.
Use any of these titles and many more of a similar vein around the Richmond men's basketball program and everyone knows who you are talking about.
Number Zero. Kendall Anthony. Jackson, Tennessee.
His name has been bellowed over the loud speakers at the Robins Center for four years now, much to the delight of the Spider faithful.
They've cheered the smallest player on the court, as he became Richmond's all-time three-point shooter and one of the program's most productive guards ever. An offensive dynamo at just 5-8, Anthony is in line to finish fourth all-time in scoring, sixth in field goals made, eighth in free throws made, fifth in three-point percentage and fifth in free throw percentage.
He has had a decorated career, garnering A-10 weekly and All-Conference awards. He became a candidate for the NABC Good Works award; and he earned a spot on the A-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll for his 3.66 GPA last fall semester.
Anthony will end his career with his name etched in the Richmond record books; but he will most of all be remembered as a leader. A leader of teammates. A leader of classmates. A leader of fans, friends and even coaches.
“Kendall Anthony is one of the few people that I have ever met that is younger than you, and yet you look up to him,” head coach Chris Mooney said. “I look up to the example that Kendall sets for others, and for the standards he sets for himself. I've never met a more self-motivated person than Kendall Anthony.”
There are many ways to define and qualify Anthony's leadership qualities, but they can best be captured in four terms: work ethic, resiliency, commitment to growth and unselfishness.
Anthony's work ethic is unmatched among many in college basketball. At 10 o' clock on a Saturday night in September this fall, Anthony was in the gym working to get better.
After long practices with Anthony running the point, pushing teammates and never slowing up, he stays in the gym to shoot more.
Before strength trainer Jay DeMayo can even walk over to where Anthony has started a lift, he has attacked it with energy and grit.
Anthony's work ethic is born out of a need to compensate for his lack of size. In high school, when Anthony stopped growing, he realized he would have to work harder. But the necessity for harder work doesn't diminish the difficulty of following through consistently.
At every level and hurdle, from junior varsity to varsity to earning a scholarship to a strong A-10 school with a basketball pedigree to becoming a starter to becoming an all-time great, Anthony worked harder than everyone else.
He has never been out to prove people wrong or to diminish the skeptics. He has just wanted to win. And wanted to do it the right way.
Anthony's unrelenting hard work makes him a leader.
On February 25, in front of a sold-out home crowd and over 420,000 viewers on national television, Anthony stepped to the free throw line with less than a minute to play. He had the opportunity to cement a win over 22nd-ranked VCU. Anthony had hit 361 career free throws prior to that moment, including five in two separate games with less than a second to go to force overtime.
Anthony missed the first. Then he missed the second. VCU tied it up and then proceeded to take a lead in overtime.
He was the player that every Richmond fan in the building wanted to have the ball in that situation. And he had missed two free throws to let the game continue.
A player of a lesser makeup would have wilted under those circumstances. They would have hung their heads as the game's win probability seemed to move further and further toward the crosstown rival.
But Anthony never gave up. He never stopped fighting. With 2.8 seconds left in overtime, he drew the attention of VCU's best interior defender out to the three-point line, opening up a wide-open hole for T.J. Cline to tie the game on a perfect inbounds pass.
Who was the first person to come to Cline in the break before the second overtime? It was Anthony. He grabbed his head and pulled it toward his in a special moment captured on ESPN. Anthony didn't quit and neither had his teammates. In that second overtime, he hit a difficult transition pull-up jumper from the foul line that put the Spiders up four. They would eventually win the game thanks to a block from Terry Allen in the final second.
Just three days later in a two-point game, Anthony was sent back to the line with less than 30 seconds remaining. He had another chance to ice a victory. And he knocked down two free throws on his way to a game-high 23 points at Saint Joseph's.
Anthony's resiliency makes him a great player. He can respond to adversity because he steels his mind against doubt. And that resiliency is contagious. It helps others believe. It makes Anthony a leader.
In nearly every story written about Anthony, all of his great qualities are imbued with an eternal context.
The positive effects of Kendall Anthony are taken to result from personality traits that he has always possessed. Anthony is nearly regarded as the exact same person at every stage of his life.
While it makes for a conveniently clean narrative, it's not the full truth. Anthony had to grow into the player and person that he is now.
And while growth is often recognized as resulting from outside circumstances, Anthony attacked his own personal growth with energy and fervor. He knows that he can still be better at basketball. He can be a better teammate, student, teammate and friend. That incredibly mature outlook on life has helped Anthony to grow into the person he currently is.
Following Cedrick Lindsay's graduation, Anthony was UR's lone scholarship senior for the 2014-15 season. He sought out ways to grow and mature as a player. He challenged himself to run the offense more efficiently, to be a great distributor and scorer at the same time. To defend all areas of the Spider defense, no matter where he went in it throughout a play.
Prior to 2014-15, Anthony had never showed much emotion on the court. He had a fun-loving, smiling presence in the locker room, but he wasn't a vocal leader during games because he was so focused on execution. But this season, that changed. It's hard to find a photo gallery or highlight reel that doesn't show Anthony imploring his teammates, pumping up the crowd and putting his emotional stamp on the experience.
“Kendall was always the quiet guy on the court,” teammate Trey Davis said. “He really is a fun guy in the locker room, but people didn't see that because he was so intense. This year, he has just let loose and had fun.”
The Spiders hit a tough three-game skid at the turn of this new year, and emotions were raw and sore in the locker room after a 14-point loss at Davidson, UR's largest deficit of the season.
But after every game, at least one player is tapped to talk on the post-game radio broadcast and speak to reporters. Win or lose, it's one of the expectations involved with a premier program. After the Davidson loss where Anthony scored 15 points with five assists, he responded to the request for his presence with two words: One Richmond.
Anthony took on being the face and voice of the program. In winning and losing, he knew that everyone turned to him.
Anthony's commitment to growth has made him a great leader.
For being one of Richmond's all-time leading shooters, Kendall Anthony is a wholly unselfish basketball player and person.
Anthony currently ranks third on the team in assists. When opposing defenses sell out to shut him down, he draws defenders to a spot and passes to wide-open teammates. He had a stretch of three games in late February where he tallied 17 assists in three games. The Spiders won all three games.
A recent article in the school newspaper, The Collegian, highlighted a story from Anthony's youth. When he was in high school, he asked his grandfather, Romeo Stewart, for some money for a date:
Riding in his grandfather's car on the way to dinner, Anthony noticed a man on the side of the street. The man appeared homeless and was holding a sign asking for support.
“Stop,” Anthony said to his grandfather.
“Stop for what?” Stewart asked.
“Back up.”
Anthony decided to give the homeless man some of the money that was intended for his date.
“That's the type of person he is,” Stewart says after telling the story. “If he can help you, he will help you.”
When Anthony is asked about this accomplishment or that feat of basketball brilliance, he points to his coaches, to his teammates, to his family and above all else to God. He knows that he has the support and blessings of others, and he points the spotlight back to them when it lands on him.
There aren't many star players at major basketball programs that come back out to the court after games to play more basketball with young kids from the community. Anthony does it with a smile and a laugh.
He knows that a child with an illness or learning disability can look at him and believe and hope. He's the smallest player on the court and he plays like the tallest. He won't admit that he's inspirational, but he puts himself out there to be. Never for himself, always for others.
On Saturday night, Kendall Anthony will play his final regular season game in the Robins Center. When he receives a standing ovation before the game, it will be to the chorus of tangible accomplishments and records he has set. But Spider fans will really be applauding the resiliency, hard work, growth and unselfishness of a great young man that they had the privilege of cheering for four years.
