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Basketball Legend Finds Redemption After Downfall

DAYTON -- Dwight Anderson showed us the house were he grew up in Dayton's Westwood neighborhood. It's abandon now but when he lived there it was full of life and he felt lucky to have moved there. "I lived on Home Avenue and when my basketball got better we got to move over here and that was the best thing in the world because we didn't have grass at my old house and I was embarrassed," Anderson said. It was a humble beginning but Anderson, or The Blur as he was called, earned a basketball scholarship to the University of Kentucky. His skills had others calling him the Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan. But fame lead him down another road -- the road that killed his dreams and nearly killed him. He got hooked on drugs. "It was good but it became an obsession and I wanted to party all the time and forgot my purpose," said Anderson. Anderson was hooked on drugs for years, basketball was only visible in his rear view mirror and he was even homeless, but now Anderson is clean and sports journalist Branson Wright is telling his story. "Whenever I spoke to someone from Dayton and asked who was the best basketball player, the same name came up, they always mentioned Dwight Anderson," said Wright. Wright, a sports writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been working on the project for eight years and is using his own money. He says it is a story that begins with stardom and has many rocky years in between to present-day redemption. On the basketball court Monday, Sept. 28, 54-year-old Anderson pulls out some practice cones and then moves with grace on the court. While playing a little ball Monday afternoon at Dayton's McIntosh Park, Anderson offers an impromptu coaching session with two kids who just happened to be playing there, too. Wright says he's been clean and sober for six years. His documentary, Wright says, is about a real-life lesson and he hopes it reaches other kids who are interested in sports and need to stay on track. "As great as Dwight was and as great as Dwight still is -- he still plays -- no one is perfect. There are bumps in the road along the way during your journey and no matter how troubling things are and how hard you fall you can always get up," Wright said about Anderson's recovery. The Dwight Anderson documentary will be shown at Stivers School For The Arts on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. It's free and open to the public. Donations will be accepted. A panel discussion will follow the presentation.