Talkdep 33

WWW.TALKDEP.COM
Chris Andersen (born July 7, 1978 in Long Beach, California), nicknamed Birdman, an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association, currently of Denver Nuggets. The 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), 228 lb (103 kg; 16.3 st) center/power forward 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 by the Hornets the next day.
Andersen grew up in Iola, Texas and played one year at Blinn College after dropping out of the University of Houston. He went undrafted in the 1999 NBA Draft and began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball League, and has played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets.

NBA

As of the end of the 2007–08 season, Andersen has appeared in 258 career games, including 8 starts, averaging 5.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.34 blocks in 16.4 minutes per game.

Slam Dunk Contest
Andersen showcased his athleticism in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Weekend in 2004 and 2005. Infamously, he missed his first eight attempts on his first dunk and his first five attempts on his second in 2005, drawing open laughter from the players on the sidelines and even ridicule from the TNT commentators.

Expulsion and reinstatement
On January 25, 2006, Andersen was disqualified from the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug policy by testing positive for a banned substance.[2] The drug which he tested positive for was not disclosed, but Andersen's suspension fell under the category of "drugs of abuse", not performance-enhancing substances or marijuana. Andersen attempted to appeal the ruling through arbitration, but the arbitrator ruled to uphold his dismissal in March 2006.He was eligible for reinstatement effective January 25, 2008. A Denver Post journalist called him "the most disgraced NBA player since the drug-induced haze of the 1980s"
On March 4, 2008, the NBA and NBA Players Association granted Andersen's request to be reinstated as an NBA player.The reinstatement was immediately effective, and the rights to his services belonged to his former team, the New Orleans Hornets, who signed him to a contract on March 5, 2008. On March 25, 2008, in a game against the Indiana Pacers, he played for the first time in an NBA game since being banned.

Return to Denver
Following the 2007-08 NBA season, Chris Andersen was released from the Hornets to free agency. Andersen agreed to sign a one-year contract with the Nuggets on July 24, 2008