David was introduced to basketball at an early age. His mother Mary played netball and basketball and thought it would be a good sport to get all her children involved in.  At the age of five, David was playing in the school basketball team at Frankston East Primary with one of his brothers, Stuart.  Mary coached the team and because there was only one team at the school, David always played a year above his age.  He had found a game he loved to play, a game where his above average height would be an advantage.

The local representative basketball club was the Frankston Blues. David joined the club when he was 11 years old and in his first year at the club, the under 12 team David played in, won the championship. This was to be one of the first of many successes that David would experience with a team in basketball.  David played with the Frankston Blues until he was 15 years old and then joined the Frankston Blues Mens Team.  He played in the SEABL East Conference Final, a game that was televised on the ABC TV. Standing at 197 foot tall, David caught the eye of Gordie McLeod, the head basketball coach at the AIS.  This was yet another step towards David’s dream of one day playing in the NBA.

Following playing as a Victorian State player in the Under 16 Australian Junior Championships, David joined the AIS for three years, training, studying and making life long friends. David knew though that height alone would not get him to where he wanted to be. He worked hard to hone his skills while he was at the AIS and still does to this today.

David represented Victoria Metro in Under 16 and 18 and Victoria in Under 20 competitions.

David has represented Australia on many occasions too.  As a junior in 1996 and in 1998 he played at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament where he was voted the tournament MVP, that same year David was also awarded the Australian Junior Male Player of the Year, ABA Most Improved Player and the ABA All-Star 5.  In 1999 David travelled to Portugal with the Australian Men’s Under 20’s team to play in the World Championship for Junior Men and then Japan in 2001 for the Under 22’s World Championship for Junior Men.

At the age of 17, David signed his first professional contract to play in the NBL.  The signing, with the South East Melbourne Magic, offered David a chance to return back home to Melbourne.  This was never to happen though as shortly after David signed his contract, the Magic merged with the North Melbourne Giants to form the Titans, leaving David as a free agent.  The Wollongong Hawks signed David, so, once again, David packed his bags and headed up the coast to Wollongong in NSW.  David played one year of his two year contract with the Hawks before signing with European basketball club Virtus Bologna in Italy.

David played with Virtus Bologna for four years and in that time the team won two Italian National Cups, an Italian National Championship and the Euroleague Championship in 2000-2001 season. In 2002 David Andersen became the seventh Australian basketball player to be selected in the NBA Draft.  The Atlanta Hawks picked him at 37 and held his rights for seven years.  David returned to Virtus Bologna for the 2001-02 season where the team earned the title Italian National Cup Champions in Italy.  In the offseason in 2003, David was selected to play in the Australian National Team (the Boomers) in the Olympic Qualifying FIBA Oceania Championship against New Zealand.  The Boomers won the series and secured a place in the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Athens.

Following his successful Oceania series in 2003, David had to leave Virtus, due to club going into bankruptcy.  His contract that still had one more year left on it was null and void leaving David to find a new team.  David signed a contract with a new club was Mens Sana Siena Basketball Club. Mens Sana Siena made it to the Euroleague Final four in Maccabi, Tel Aviv for the first time in the history of the club they also won the Italian National Championship another first for the club.  That season David was awarded the Most Valuable Player in the Final Series.

In 2004 David was selected to represent Australia at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.  Playing alongside old Wollongong teammate’s Glen Saville and Calvin (CJ) Bruton.  The Boomers placed 9th at Athens, a result they would improve upon in 2008.

After playing at the Olympics, David made another move, leaving Italy to go to Russia. David signed a two year contract with Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow.  In his first season with CSKA Moscow the team were crowned Russian National Champions and Russian National Cup Champions, along with also making the final four of the Euroleague.  David was also named in the All-Euroleague First Team 2004-05.  David had a fantastic start to the 2005-06 season until mid-way through when he dislocated his ankle and fractured his fibula.  David returned to Australia for surgery, specialist treatment and rehabilitation, heading back to Russia to continue rehab and to support his team for their Euroleague Final Four campaign.  The next two years at CSKA Moscow saw more success with two more Russian National Champion crowns, a Russian National Cup and the title of Euroleague Champions in Madrid 2008.

In the June of 2008, David signed with FC Barcelona and then headed off to his second Olympics, this time in Beijing.  The Boomers placed 7th at the Olympics, again David was playing alongside his old Wollongong teammates and some new big names in Australian basketball.

At the end of the Olympics David would head to his new club “FCB” in Spain and start playing in the Spanish “ACB” league and Euroleague.  In May 2009 David went to Berlin with FC Barcelona for the Euroleague Final Four.  FC Barcelona placed third and then went home to take out the Spanish ACB National Championship.  David’s contract with FC Barcelona had an NBA out option which meant that should he sign with an NBA team he would be released by FC Barcelona to go and play in America.  On July 2009, the Atlanta Hawks who held David’s NBA rights, did a deal with the Houston Rockets.  The deal involved trading David’s rights for cash and future draft considerations.  The only thing left to do was for David to head to Houston, Texas and sign his first NBA contract with the Houston Rockets.  With everything signed David attended the NBA Rookie Transition Program and made his move to America to realise his dream of playing at the highest level of basketball, the NBA.

After playing with the Houston Rockets for the 2009/10 NBA Season, David was traded to the Toronto Raptors before the beginning of the NBA 2010/11 Season.  The trade took place while David was playing at the FIBA World Championships in Turkey.

David played 11 games for the Raptors before being traded to the New Orleans Hornets on November 20, 2011.  David signed a three year deal with Mens Sana Siena of Italy in July 2011, wearing the number 7 singlet.  In June 2012 David helped Siena win its 6th straight Italian National Championship and 7th championship in 9 years.

After representing Australia at his third consecutive Olympics in 2012 Dave signed with Turkish team Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul.  

David is planning on being selected in the upcoming 2014 FIBA World Championships and we hope he stays on wearing his number 13 singlet at the Rio Olympics.