Patrick Anderson, the world’s best wheelchair basketball player

Patrick Anderson, the world’s best wheelchair basketball player, has spent this season playing for Bidaideak Bilbao

Canadian but a New York resident for the past decade, Wheelchair Basketball legend Patrick Anderson has been preparing for the Paralympics in Paris by competing in the Spanish league and in Europe as part of the Bilbao club Bidaideak. The multiple Olympic and world champion has fallen in love with the city and its territory.

What is your opinion of Bilbao as a city?

It’s got a great size. I grew up in small town Canada (Fergus, Ontario), and have lived in NYC for 10 years. Bilbao is a lovely spot right in the middle. Clean, walkable, verdant.

Had you ever heard of this city before?

I had heard of it, and of the distinctiveness of the Basque Country, but only I knew it as one of the wheelchair basketball hubs in Spain. I was vaguely aware of Athletic and now it turns out that I’m going back to New York with one of my sons having taken a liking to football.

“The Metro is a jewel. Some of the moving sidewalks and elevators are really helpful”

You came here with your wife and three children. How did they manage to settle in?

There’s a rhythm to life here that we had to adjust to. Stores that close in the afternoon. Restaurant kitchens that don’t open til 8:30pm. Sunday rest. Coming from North America, it can feel inconvenient, but I like it. There are some things more important than convenience.

Have you had a chance to visit the rest of the territory?

We have. We actually don’t live in Bilbao. We thought we would, but the only place we could find a suitable apartment on short notice was Urduliz. It’s a lovely town in itself. And we have the beaches in Gorliz and Plentzia in one direction, Bilbao in the other.

If it were up to you, what would you take from here to Canada or the United States?

I would take the clean, wheelchair accessible metro anywhere, including NY. The metro is a jewel. Some of the moving sidewalks and elevators are really helpful. There’s only so much you can do in a city that has so many steep hills. A number of my teammates use battery powered devices on the front of their wheelchairs to get around. In many places, a device like that would be a luxury or a toy. But in a place like Bilbao, it’s almost a necessity.

Will you come back to Bilbao?

I would love to come back. I would tell my friends that Bilbao is a vibrant city connected to an epic coastline in a beautiful, tucked away corner of the world. I’ve never been anywhere quite like it.

Coffee with a pintxo de tortilla, a vermouth in Bilbao and a walk along Gorliz beach

Patrick Anderson, a true wheelchair basketball world legend, has enjoyed his season with Bidaideak Bilbao. “I’ve had a great time both on and off the court with this group. If we had spent more time together to develop more chemistry and had better injury luck, maybe we could have broken through and won a something. But the Spanish league is tough, and so is the Champions Cup and the Euroleague,” he explains.

As well as his teammates and the club, which he is sure will lift new trophies, Patrick Anderson has fond memories of the tortilla – he has become an expert in tortilla pintxos – and the café on the corner of his home in Urduliz, of “the Antigua Cigarrería in Bilbao for a vermouth on the rocks and evening strolls along the beach in Gorliz”.

“I would love to come back; Bilbao is a city connected to an epic coastline in a beautiful, tucked away corner of the world”