Kyle Anderson finds his place

By Ansley Warnell

For this blog post, I chose to read a feature story on Spurs’ small forward, Kyle Anderson. The article is titled, “Spurs notebook: Jack-of-all-positions Anderson settling in at power forward,” written by Jeff McDonald. McDonald is a beat writer for the Spurs for the San Antonio Express News.

I decided to choose an article on Anderson because I think he is a very interesting player. As the title implies, Anderson has been put at different positions. Growing up, he focused much of his time at point guard working to increase his dribbling and passing skills. While at UCLA, he played power forward where he was a standout. While with the Spurs, he has struggled to find his fit being a 6-foot-9 player with not a lot of strength and speed. In the last five games, Anderson has started at power forward.

Overall I think this article was okay. I do not know if I exactly agree with everything the writer said. I believe Anderson has been put at different positions in attempt to find his greatest strength, but I am not sure I would label him a “jack-of-all-positions.”

I also believe the writer could have gone more into detail about Anderson’s changes over the last few years since he was drafted in 2014. He could have provided readers with more background and added more stats to give a better understanding of Anderson’s last few years. He also compares Anderson to Boris Diaw, but then never explains why. I think the writer leaves readers hanging.

I do like the use of quotes the writers had. I think it is really important to get genuine quotes and Anderson saying his position is different and he is being faced with new challenges is important. It gives insight into how Anderson feels adjusting to this position and makes readers feel like they better understand what Anderson has been going through over the last few years.

I really appreciate the quote the writer used and think it reminded me of a good lesson that it is important to include human emotion and elements in your writing. People want to read stories that they can connect to. I think this quote is raw and really gives insight to how Anderson is adjusting.