One of the most decorated Canadian basketball players of all time has retired.
Patrick Anderson, who directed the Canadian male wheelchair basketball team to three Paralympic gold medals and a silver, says that last year’s Paralympic Games in Paris were the last.
“You just know,” said Fergus’s 45 -year -old man, Ontario, in a press release. “In the background when the elastic band breaks and you are like, ‘You know what, it is no longer in me to put the blood, sweat and tears to represent Canada at the highest level.
“It has been an honor to do it for a long time.”
Anderson has been called Michael Jordan of wheelchair basketball.
He was one of Canada’s flag carriers for opening ceremonies in Paris. He scored 31 points and had 11 rebounds in the game of the bronze medal that Canada lost to Germany.
Anderson said a successful 2024 season helped to retire.
He moved to his family to Spain, where he played professionally in Bilbao, while Canada prepared for an Olympic rating repechage tournament. In the qualifier of the last chance in Antibes, France, Anderson led Canada in a 72-60 victory over Italy to consolidate a place in the Paralympic Games.
“It was an almost perfect year, the last with the team,” Anderson said. “From deciding to go with my wife and children to Spain to prepare for the qualifier, go to the qualifier and see yourself in such a dramatic and exciting way.”
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Born in Edmonton and raised in Fergus, Anderson discovered wheelchair basketball after he was hit by a car at age nine and his lower legs were amputated under the knee.
He joined the Canadian male team in 1998 and helped Canada to a bronze medal in the world championship of that year. He added another bronze in 2002 before playing a key role in the triumph of the Gold Medal of Canada in 2006.
At the university level, he stood out for the University of Illinois from 1998 to 2001, capturing three national titles.
He played professionally in Australia, Germany and Türkiye. He was appointed the most valuable player in the National Basketball League of Wheels of Australia in 2003. He led the German RSV-Dill Club three consecutive victories in the European Cup of Champions of 2004-06.
Before spending the 2024 season in Spain, Anderson played eight seasons with the New York Rollin ‘Knicks, winning four titles from the National Wheel Chair Basketball Association.
Anderson is now helping the next generation of Canada’s basketball players as skills coach and intends to launch a wheelchair basketball program in his hometown in Fergus.
“It will be a little tactical comments on how I read the game and advice on how to develop the technical part of his game,” Anderson said about training. “With wheelchair basketball, you must be good to train alone and in small groups, I have decades of experience doing that.”
