Chris Andersen

Christopher Claus Andersen (born July 7, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. \n', ' Nicknamed "Birdman", Andersen was born in Long Beach, California, grew up in Iola, Texas, and played one year at Blinn College. Andersen began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball Association and the American minor leagues. He then played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. He received a two-year ban from the NBA in 2006 for violating the league\'s drug policy, but was reinstated on March 4, 2008, and re-signed with the Hornets the next day. He returned to Denver later in 2008, and remained with the team until 2012. He signed with the Miami Heat in January 2013 and won a championship with them that same year. He and Oliver Lafayette are the only Blinn students to ever play in the NBA. He now plays for Power in the Big3 league.\n', ' Andersen is the second of the three children of corrections officer and Danish immigrant Claus Andersen and Linda Holubec, a Tennessee native who worked as a waitress at the Port Hueneme naval base, and played basketball in high school. In 1982, when Andersen was four, his family moved to Texas, using a loan from the Texas Veterans Land Board to purchase a 10-acre plot in unincorporated Iola, about 100 miles north of Houston. The Andersens then lived off the land, with Linda working on low-end jobs and relying on the help of neighbors and Linda\'s brother, who was a Navy supply boat captain. During Andersen\'s middle school years, he and his siblings were sent to a group home in Dallas for three years.\n', '