Ryan Anderson Credits Faith For Helping Him Get Through Gia Allemand’s Death

Ryan Anderson still isn’t over longtime girlfriend Gia Allemand’s death. In some ways, he’ll never be over her tragic suicide, but this week, he spoke publically for the first time about his grief and credited his teammates, his coaches, his family and his faith for helping him push forward.

According to The Times-Picayune, Anderson is already working on establishing a foundation to honor his fallen girlfriend. He’s refusing to divulge the exact details of what the foundation’s mission will be, but apparently, its basic purpose will be to let people know they’re never alone in this world.

Allemand and Anderson dated for about two and a half years, but in the weeks leading up to her death, they began fighting quite a bit and allegedly talking about a possible break-up. After one particularly bad fight prior to his New Orleans Pelicans practice, she took her own life. He spent a few weeks coping and even penned a loving tribute to her, but eventually, he returned to practice to try and move forward.

Here's a portion of what he had to say yesterday...

"I praise God every day to have Him in my life. It would be very, very hard to get through these steps if I didn't have God and Jesus Christ in my life. I'm really glad coach asked me to come back when he did. I've been here for a few weeks now and just being around the guys and being back in the gym, having some sort of routine back, it helps a little bit."

Pop Blend’s sincerest thoughts go out to Anderson during this time of need. No one expects to have to shoulder a blow that devastating, but deep inside all of us, we have the tools to fight off anything. Here’s to hoping he carries on Gia’s loving spirit and uses it to make him a better person and to improve the lives of others.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.