Anthony Anderson: A Confused Basketball Fan With A Big Heart

Follow @TheUrbanDaily Follow @MrMecc

From Nawlins cop to new baby daddy, actor Anthony Anderson has played many parts. Starring in “Guys With Kids” and “Law & Order” has kept him busy, but the role of host for the recent U.N.C.F. “Night Of Stars,” was one the Howard University alumnus was most excited about.

MUST READ: Black Wrestlers Made History, Too

The bi-coastal funny man sat down with TheUrbanDaily.com  before a taping of “106th & Park” to explain how much of a “troubled student” he really was and how you can manage to be a fan of the Knicks, the Lakers and the Clippers “at the same damn time.”

THEURBANDAILY: Sitting here with my bo– the dude known as Anthony Anderson. What’s good sir?

Anthony Anderson: You can say I’m your boy m*fucka… you ain’t got to st-st-stutter!

Man, you’re too well dressed and you already cursed at me for taking your Snapple. I can’t claim you as a friend yet…

Obviously we must be friends. You already took my Snapple! Aaand you took the all-natural Kiwi-Strawberry, which was the only one I had in the bucket, which is my favorite!

If it makes you feel any better, it went terrible with the pretzels I stole.

Oh well you can have the pretzels… I was giving those away anyway.

Giving away…great segue into your philanthropy. How did you become a part of the United Negro College Fund program?

BET and the United Negro College Fund reached out to me and asked me to host an evening of the stars for them. And along with hosting, agreed to give me money to give a $25,000 scholarship to a student or students for as long as I’m hosting the show. So I couldn’t turn that down [having attended an] HBCU myself. Going to Howard University, not having the resources to finish school, growing up in a house where we watched the Lou Rawls telethon and we didn’t have much to give but my father and mother called and gave, coming full circle now to me hosting that event and giving money myself… all that is what attracted me.

I heard you were a troubled student at Howard but still managed to graduate. How’d you do that?
Well… somebody is fudging the truth. I was a troubled student…

Was that financial trouble or “I’m-smoking-weed-on-the-quad” trouble?

Well um… I plead he 5th on the weed part…

Well done.

…Because it didn’t happen at the Quad. I had financial trouble. That’s why I relish being the host of U.N.C.F.’s Night of the Stars because I know what it’s like first hand. And to be in the position to give back now is definitely a blessing.

Like TheUrbanDaily.com on Facebook to stay updated with the latest entertainment news and original interviews!

Now since you’ve seen the UNCF show, tell us who rocked their sets.

Charlie Wilson rocked, uncle Charlie got busy. If you’ve never seen a Charlie Wilson show, when Charlie comes to town, you need to go.

Word? Are the braids still murder?

The braids are gone now! He has a low fro now. He got rid of the braids.

First the Fugees gon break up….

(Laughs) All of the performances were great man. I just have an affinity for Charlie Wilson. But Faith was great. Keyshia Cole was great. Tyrese was great. Tyrese even came out and sang with uncle Charlie. Eric Benet did his thing, so it was just a great all-around show, performance wise and with everybody who gave scholarships.

Ok so…

CHAKA KAHN!!!! CHAKA KAHN!!!!

I’m going to have to write that part down in all caps.

That’s all I’m saying… AND Yolanda Adams! C’mon you know you gotta have a little gospel, you gotta pray to Jesus to give money to the kids! Thank ya Jesus! Hallelujah (Speaks in tongues)

And now… this is happening.

E-G-E-L-L-O-C… E-G-E-L-L-O-C!! That’s just ‘college’ spelled backwards. So if you ever hear anybody say that they just spelling college backwards, they ain’t really caught the Holy Ghost.

What was Howard like for Anthony Anderson? Click to read more…

(Shaking head) Is that what you learned in Howard?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: I learned a lot of things in Howard. You know what I learned? I learned how to survive and that’s what kept me on my game. I was accepted into Howard, got there with $900 in my pocket, I had a $950 Pell grant and I had no housing. So Howard taught me how to survive in the real world. And I was only 18 years old and I didn’t know anybody in DC. So that’s what it taught me. And because of the skills that I was able to learn when I was there as a student, its allowed me to navigate in life.

“How’s Guys With Kids” treating you?

It’s great man! Jimmy Fallon exec produces it and created it. He also sings our theme song. I’ve known Jimmy for a little more ten 10 years now. Just on a personal level, he’s a great guy. He called me out of the blue and said I have this show that I’m doing with NBC and I want you to be apart of it. And here we are a year later with 17 shows in the can. I can’t be mad at that.

How did you feel being attached to “Guys With Kids” when “All My Baby Mamas” with Shawty Lo came along?

You know, I’ve only heard about “All My Baby Mamas” with Shawty Lo. I’ve never seen it. I understand I may never see it.

Yeah, it may go down like that….

It SHOULD go down like the titanic. There’s a place for everything and an audience for everything. But when you have sponsors threatening to pull their advertising dollars from your network because of the content that they’ve become accustomed to kind of strays to the left, um something has to be said for that. Something has to be said for a reality program that’s dealing with a real-life situations and people when the people don’t want to see it. I’ve yet to see the show so I can’t make my own personal judgment, I’m just going on based on what I hear.

I only saw the trailer.

I’ve heard about the trailer and from what I hear, more power to him but it’s not something I would want to watch or have my children watch. Just being real. I support everybody’s hustle out there. Like there’s some things out there that Shawty Lo may not want to watch or think is trash. I can’t think of anything, but there might be! Might be “My Baby’s Daddy”. I don’t know…

Does Anthony Anderson have a twin? Click to read more…

THEURBANDAILY: Are you in fact, Michael Strahan’s, comedic stunt double?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: I will tell you this; we are definitely from the same tribe. I don’t know what tribe that is but we are definitely from the same tribe. And I’ve known Mike for years man. I just did his show this morning and they had a picture of us that one of his boys posted on twitter a couple of weeks ago where Mike and I looked like the spitting image of one another.

I saw that. Did somebody’s father not tell somebody something??

I’m just saying… somebody mama is lying to somebody, somebody mama lying.

Ok, how does it feel to be a guy who can still get cast to play a role anywhere between 18 and 80?

Feels pretty good man. I mean first off, black doesn’t crack… it does chip a little bit. But to be able to run the gamut in comedy and in drama and have the ability to play the characters from young to old is just a blessing and that’s all I can say. I mean I started my career playing ball on a NBC show called “Hang Time.” Teddy Bear, that was me. I was playing a sixteen-year-old at twenty-five. So I’ve been doing that for quite some time now. So that just means when I’m sixty, I’ll look… forty. I hope.

The wife should love that. How long have you been married?

Thirteen years, together for twenty-three.

Were the chicks driving you that crazy that you had to lock down at such a young age?

Those are two of my groupies sitting right next to you. They had to get off the couch for you to sit down.

One light, one brown… it is like a mini-Benetton ad.

I run the gamut, I run the gamut. Just call me Jessie Jackson, that’s my rainbow coalition right there. You saw the Asian girl that just left? Ok, that’s all I’m saying.

How many different teams his Anthony Anderson a fan of? Read more!

Back to Basketball… how about those Lakers?

I don’t know what to say about my team right now. I can’t even call them my team. Kobe not even calling the team, his team… I don’t know man it’s interesting. Mike Brown lost his job after four losses without Steve Nash and Howard in the line-up. But Mike D’Antoni, the team is performing worse than they did in pre-season and he still has a job. I’m just saying, they were at least playing defense when Mike brown was there. You may not have agreed with the Princeton offense but they were winning games and making shots. That’s all I got to say. But Mike Brown is home somewhere counting his 14 million dollars for not having to go to work so I’m not mad at him either. I don’t even think he knows what the Lakers record is right now. I wouldn’t be too concerned.

I’m just gonna say “Go Knicks”

Oh I’m a Knicks fan! When I lived in New York I was on the floor at damn near every Knicks home game! You know what’s unfortunate? The Knicks are on fire right now. They were almost hot when I was living in New York three or four years ago. They were little more than luke-warm, weren’t quite hot just yet. I go back home to L.A. they get on fire! I’m like these are the Knicks I wanted to see when I was in New York. Man I had Larry Johnson’s uniform growing up in Compton! I didn’t know how the hell I got that or why I had it but I just had an affinity for the Knicks. I mean I’ve always been a Laker fan, will always be a Laker fan but I rooted for the Knicks whenever they were playing. Just like I have an affinity for the Yankees. I didn’t really give a damn about the Dodgers. The Yankees was the team I was concerned about growing up in LA. But the Lakers have always been my team. Now you look at what the Clippers are doing man and it’s just…

Embarrassing?

It is! And I can’t even say I’m on the bandwagon because I’ve secretly rooted for the Clippers for years.

Now wait, I know the “run the gamut” style is your thing but you got a LOT of different wagons you riding man!

I hitch my pony to the coach that’s gon go! (Laughs) I mean how can you deny what the Clippers are doing? I’ve owned season tickets to the Clippers. I’ve owned season tickets to the clippers and the Lakers at the same time! So its not like I’m just jumping on. I’m a fan of sports, look at the Clippers… they have one of the best records in the NBA, how can you not root for that? I know you’re a Knicks fan but I’m sure you rooted for Jordan when he played!

Except when it was against the Knicks….

There you go! That’s how I felt. But I’ll tell you this, when the Clippers play the Lakers? I’m rooting for the Clippers.

What about when the Lakers play the Knicks?

I’m rooting for the Lakers. I’d wear a Lakers jersey under my clothes whenever I’d go to The Garden. I couldn’t wear it in public because they gave me the tickets. They were like; you cannot be a guest of The Garden in Lakers colors. Every now and again when the Lakers did their thing I would lift up my shirt just to show the colors.

If you want to make a call and get those Garden seats back I’ll wear a Lakers Jersey under my Knicks one and rep for you…

(Laughs)

Anything inspirational you want to say to people or to add anything about Kat Williams before we go?

Nah, I’m gonna leave Katt alone men. But I will say a mind is a terrible thing to waste but a wonderful thing to invest in.

That could go for Kat Williams too!
(Laughs)

Get more great interviews like this in your inbox when you sign up for our newsletter!

[ione_newsletter_signup]