Chris “Birdman” Andersen Net Worth, Career, Biography, Facts, Age, Life Story

Chris “Birdman” Andersen is an American professional basketball player who has a net worth of $14 million. Andersen is best known for his contributions in the NBA as a prolific rebounder and enforcer, not to mention playing alongside Lebron James on both James’s Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers teams. During his NBA career Andersen earned $38 million in salary alone. At his peak he earned $5.4 million per year in salary, from the Miami Heat.

Early Life: Chris Andersen was born July 7, 1978 in Long Beach, California. Out of three siblings, Andersen is the second child of Claus Andersen, a corrections officer, and Linda Holubec, who was a waitress at the Port Hueneme naval base. Anderson would start playing basketball in high school with much convincing from his high school’s varsity coach. Although Andersen could not achieve the sort of grades that would get him into the University of Houston, he did manage to attend Blinn College in Brenham, TX. Andersen is notably the only Blinn student to ever play in the NBA. Andersen’s coach in college just so happened to be the father of Andersen’s basketball coach during high school. Andersen would play for one season and lead the National Junior College Athletic Association in blocked shots.

Pre-NBA Career: Andersen has played for a variety of NBA teams, filling out enforcer-type roles, happy to do the sort of intangibles that don’t get the same kind of attention as straight-up scoring. Andersen has played for the Denver Nuggets (two separate times, as a matter of fact), the New Orleans Hornets, the Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

However, Andersen began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball Association and the American minor leagues. He played for teams such as the Fargo-Moorhead Beez of the IBA as well as contributing his unique skill set to the Sugarland Sharks in the Southwest Basketball League.

In 2001, Andersen played for the Cleveland Cavaliers as a part of the 2001 NBA Summer League. Then, on September 28, 2001, Andersen signed with the Phoenix Suns. Andersen would later be waived by the Suns but was selected as the first overall pick — by the Fayetteville Patriots, which was Andersen’s introduction to the NBA Development League during their inaugural draft.

NBA Career: Andersen was the very first D-League player to be called up by a team in the NBA. He signed a contract with the Denver Nuggets (November 21, 2001) — after only playing two games with the Fayetteville Patriots. Andersen would quickly become a top producer, especially as a rebounder and shot blocker. It was during the 2002 Rocky Mountain Revue that Andersen’s teammates Kenny Satterfield and Junior Harrington gave him his famous nickname: “Birdman”, which made reference to Anderson’s vast wingspan (also termed “arm span”) as well as his very particular on-the-court aerial acrobatics. In 2003, Andersen would re-sign with the Denver Nuggets as well.

He would afterward play for the New Orleans Hornets and even appeared in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest for the 2005 All-Star Weekend — this was his second year in a row performing at the event. Andersen famously tried (unsuccessfully) to execute the exact same dunk eight times.

The 6 ft 10 in, 245 lb. center/power forward was handed down 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 following day. He returned to Denver later in 2008, where he remained until 2012.

Andersen would eventually sign with the Miami Heat in January of 2013 and he would later play for the Memphis Grizzlies as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers. Andersen is also known for brightly colored tattoos on his arms, chest, neck, back, hands and legs. His first tattoo was given as an eighteenth birthday gift by his mother, who has some body art of her own from her tenure in the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. Andersen’s regular tattoo artist, Denver-based John Slaughter, estimates that Andersen has inked 75 percent of his body. He showed off those tattoos in PETA’s “Ink Not Mink” ad campaign to protest the fur industry. On May 10, 2012, Denver NBC affiliate 9News reported that Andersen’s home was the target of an investigation of a suspected Internet criminal case by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. Andersen was not charged with any crimes. In September 2013, it was revealed that Andersen was the victim of an elaborate hoax.

BIG3 Career: On March 23, 2018, it was reported that Andersen had signed a contract with the BIG3 basketball organization, joining their draft pool, which made him draft eligible for the BIG3’s Power team. Andersen’s contributions helped Power win the BIG3 championship in 2018.