Pat Forde / The Louisville Courier-Journal

Derek Anderson was hungry and alone.

Neither circumstance was unusual, he says, but this time there was the threat of permanence. His mother was gone – just left, with no warning, no word where and no telling when she’d return. His older brother had walked off awhile before, into the unforgiving western Louisville streets. His father had long ago faded from view.

Derek needed to eat.

To eat he needed money.

He had none.

He was 12 years old.

Today, Derek sits in the expansive Waterfront Plaza office of his business, DA Enterprises Inc., a budding conglomerate that includes a clothing line, pizza chain and real-estate development. He is signing certificates for San Antonio, Texas, school children who had perfect attendance last year.

Platinum and diamonds encircle his neck, wrists and fingers, proof of the professional basketball riches he has earned since leaving the University of Kentucky in 1997.

“Grace of God,” he says, trying to summarize how he got here. “Just the grace of God. He put His hands on me. He touched me then, and He’s touching me now.

“I can’t explain it. If you look at it, if you walk through my life, you’ll be amazed at how I did it.”

Put on your walking shoes and prepare to experience the amazing grace of Derek Anderson.

We will journey with him from abjection to abundance, from aloneness to adulation.

A youngster with nothing will one day sign a $48 million National Basketball Association contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.

A child kicked to society’s periphery will blossom into a generous, ambitious and active civic force in his hometown.

But along the way we will see fear and sorrow.