Danilo Gallinari spent more than a decade around NBA locker rooms, but when asked about the most absurd purchase he ever saw from another player, one former teammate immediately came to mind: Chris “Birdman” Andersen.
On the ‘A Cresta Alta’ Podcast, Gallinari recalled the story from his time with the Denver Nuggets, where Andersen’s larger-than-life personality extended well beyond the basketball court. Andersen, who later won the 2013 NBA championship with the Miami Heat, was known throughout his career for his tattoos, energy and eccentric style. According to Gallinari, his taste in vehicles was every bit as distinctive.
“There were a lot. But the first one that comes to mind is when I arrived in Denver for my first season. I was playing with this character… We can name him, anyway he’d be happy for me to tell the story: Birdman.
He later played in Miami, won the title with LeBron. And by the way, we mostly remember the character Birdman, but he was also a really good player. He had problems, especially with drugs, he was away from the NBA for two years… but he was really a good player.
One day, I arrive at practice. I’m stopped at a light just before the Pepsi Center and I hear someone honking behind me. You know those truck horns that make a huge noise? Something like that.
I look behind me and I see a kind of truck… but turned into a monster truck. It wasn’t even just a monster truck with four huge wheels: it was a whole truck, with four gigantic wheels and flames painted on both sides.
And he kept honking at me. He’d probably recognized me from behind and he honked at me through three red lights in a row. He kept going until we reached the parking lot.
Me, I was thinking: “If I get out and the guy driving something like that gets out too, he’s going to kill me. I don’t even know who it is, but he’s going to kill me.”
I finally arrive at the parking lot, thinking that at least there, I’m safe. And then: “Damn, this guy followed me all the way to the parking lot!”
I get out… and it was Birdman. For three red lights, he’d been honking at me from that fully customized monster truck.
I ask him: “But what’s this thing?”
And him: “Oh yeah, that? It’s one of my ten cars.”
As soon as we got out of the cars, heading to the locker room, he showed me the ten cars.
He was the only one among us who lived almost an hour from Denver. He lived almost at the start of the mountains. His house had four floors. His basement was almost as big as my house here in Miami, and my house is pretty big anyway.
He had a whole underground floor dedicated solely to guns. He was passionate about guns. To get in, he had to use his fingerprint: the door would open and behind it, there was this huge space filled with guns.
And on one of his cars, he’d even had two rifles mounted on the sides that could swivel like this… I don’t know if they could actually shoot, but he’d had these two rifles mounted directly on the sides of the car.
That’s the kind of stuff Birdman did.”
Gallinari’s story paints a vivid picture of Andersen away from the court. The vehicle alone was enough to make Gallinari nervous before he realized who was behind the wheel, but discovering that the enormous customized truck was merely one part of a 10-car collection made the encounter even more memorable.
The anecdote also reflects the unusual image Andersen cultivated throughout his NBA career. Yet Gallinari was careful not to reduce his former teammate to the “Birdman” persona. He specifically emphasized that Andersen was an effective NBA player whose reputation sometimes overshadowed his actual contribution on the floor.
Andersen played 16 NBA seasons and became an important reserve for Miami’s championship teams, providing rim protection, rebounding and energy around a roster led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
For Gallinari, though, one of the clearest memories of Andersen apparently came before they even reached the practice facility.
A gigantic flame-covered truck, three consecutive red lights of relentless honking and the realization that the intimidating driver following him into the Nuggets’ parking lot was simply Birdman saying hello. Few NBA teammate introductions could have been more appropriate.
