Bob Ford: South Florida's Ron Anderson Jr. has a fan overseas

NASHVILLE - The phone rings in La Séguinière and Ron Anderson Sr. answers the call with a French lilt where there used to be a Chicago accent. "Allo?" The former 76ers forward has lived overseas for most of the last 17 years, almost all of it in France and for the last five years in this little town near Nantes and the Atlantic coast.

"I know," he says. "I sound French. I don't hear it anymore."

Basketball took him overseas after a 10-year NBA career, and he chased the game and what still lay ahead of him, accepting the bargain of what he was leaving behind as well.

Part of what he left behind was Ron Anderson Jr., a son born just as Ron Sr. was beginning his second season with the 76ers in 1989. By the time Ron Jr. learned to walk, he was in the locker room at the Spectrum, romping around with the Sixers players, hiding in the lockers.

Ron Sr. left to follow his career when Ron Jr. was 5. He and Ron Jr.'s mother, Gail, became estranged and divorced when the boy was about 10. For a decade, the son could not forgive the absent father, would not answer his letters or come to the phone when he called.

"I felt I missed out on a lot because he wasn't there," Ron Anderson Jr. says. "There are certain things a father is supposed to teach his son that only a man can teach you. The years between 10 and 20 are important years. Instead, I had to learn from my mistakes and try not to make the same ones."

The son, as he stands outside the locker room in Bridgestone Arena, looks so much like the father it is almost scary. He is 6-foot-8, an inch taller than his father and, at 240 pounds, heavier and more imposing on the basketball court. Friday night, Ron Jr. and the University of South Florida Bulls play Temple in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"I don't know if I will be able to see it," Ron Sr. says. "I would like to, of course, but I don't know."

He didn't see the Wednesday play-in game when USF dismantled Cal with great defense that was anticipated and a fluid offense that was not. The Bulls led, 36-13, at halftime on the way to a coasting win. Ron Jr. was smooth around the basket on offense and unrelenting at the other end. The father would have recognized a resemblance.

"I know that I got a willingness to work from him," Ron Jr. says. "I want to work through adversity."

The truth is that Ron Sr. was only an average defensive player at the small-forward position. He did like to shoot, though, and loved to play. He only retired in 2010 when he was 52 and playing for the third-division French team that he now coaches.

Ron Sr. played his best basketball during five seasons with the Sixers. The season that began with Ron Jr.'s birth ended with the Sixers matched up against the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the playoffs. Ron Sr. had the unenviable task of guarding Michael Jordan much of the time.

"I've seen those games on NBA Classic," Ron Jr. says. "My dad told me that if I wanted to know what kind of player he was, watch when he checked into the game and five seconds later he shot a three. He wasn't afraid to shoot."

Ron Jr. finally called his father about three years ago. It was five in the morning when the phone rang in La Séguinière. The wall came down and two weeks later Ron Jr. was in France.

"It was difficult for Ron because I made the choice to continue my career. At that time, he didn't understand and thought I deserted him, but that wasn't really the case," Ron Sr. says. "He called me after he had become a man and told me that he needed a father. To hear that was like paradise for me."

They talked, they made peace and, of course, they played one-on-one.

"I beat him two-out-of-three, but every shot I took was a jumper because he wouldn't let me get in the paint," Ron Jr. says. "He told me that his son wasn't going to bully him around."

"I was impressed," Ron Sr. says. "He had a lot of ability and he got some good shooting from my side. I told him that the only thing missing is you have to want to go to war on the court, you have to love the contact. That's the difference in our two games. Ron played in grammar school and high school. I played on the street."

Playing two seasons at Kansas State, then transferring to USF and sitting out a season, Ron Jr. has not only grown but he's grown tough, which is a quality coach Stan Heath demands from all of his players. When he left Kansas State, Ron Jr. narrowed the decision on his next stop to two schools - South Florida and Temple. Owls senior guard Ramone Moore was his host when he visited Temple.

"I love everything about Temple. I've got a history with them," Ron Jr. says. "I know they're going to come out ready to play."

If so, that will make one game in a row that USF has met an opponent ready to play. The Bulls don't expect everything to go as well this time, but they also don't think another win should surprise anyone.

"You know, the guys in the locker room, we really believe that we can go out and play that type of defense every night," Ron Jr. says.

This has been the time of life, this run to the tournament, and Friday night will be the biggest game of his life. Almost 4,400 miles away, in northwestern France, it will be nearly 3 a.m. when USF and Temple tip off. Maybe the game will be available on television, but maybe not.

"If I were there, I would tell him to attack," Ron Sr. says. "It would be a dream for me to be there. I would tell him to go right at the other guy."

He won't be in Nashville, though. His team practices in the evening and the team owner doesn't give the coach time off during the season. He has an 8-year-old daughter who lives with him, Ron Jr's half-sister, and that limits his ability to travel.

"Tell him good luck for me," Ron Sr. says. "I'm very proud."