Words, actions and experience from Assistant Coach Anthony Carter will be used to guide a new bunch that are ready the Sioux Falls Skyforce defend the NBADL title.

It’s hard to sum up a lifetime of dedication to the game of basketball in just a paragraph or two. Fourteen NBA seasons is a good start. Then you add CBA and international teams to the professional playing resume and you’ve got a pretty good career for the Atlanta, Georgia native.

If not for the I Have a Dream Program, a wayward young Carter may not be in Sioux Falls for the start of the 2016-17 campaign. “My freshman year of high school I dropped out and was playing on the streets for money for three years. When I had the chance to play in Junior College, (Saddleback in California) the President (of the program) said, ‘We’ll get you back in school.’ I got some tutoring and my GED and made the team.”

Just on its face, the aspect of dropping out of high school to play basketball seems pretty radical. Looking back, it seems that Carter was a little ahead of his time. “I was always better than anyone else (in my age group). At 15 years old I was playing in 18 and under (situations). All my friends were older and they had graduated. When my freshman season was over, I wanted to hang out with them. I wasn’t a bad kid or a dumb kid. I was just bored.”

Obviously, Carter is not afraid of taking a different path. Neither is he afraid at 41 years old to coach by example. “I don’t want to be one of those out of shape coaches who can’t get out there. I’m not going to tell you to do something that I can’t do. I also can motivate guys to play through injury and push them harder to realize they can give a little more. That was a big part of me as a player.”

Two men with over 2,300 combined coaching wins giving Carter a shot at being on the bench is also a motivating factor. He played for both Pat Riley in Miami and George Karl in Denver. “Riley and Karl both thought I could be a good coach. When it was coming from those guys, that’s when I thought I had something special.”

Carter now has coaching connections to both men with a stint with Karl last year on the Sacramento Kings bench. Carter’s time has now come full circle with the Skyforce, Riley and the Miami Heat; the team that first took a chance on the hard working guard.

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