THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Photos: Jrue Holiday Photos: NBA draft 
"I like Henderson. I think Henderson is going to be pretty special."
- Larry Brown, Jan. 17, 2005NEW YORK - Larry Brown knew Gerald Henderson before that, of course, before the kid played for the Episcopal Academy team that Brown always said he wanted to coach as his retirement job. Brown's is a big world but basketball is a small world, and, well, you know.
"I've known him ever since I was in middle school, being in Philadelphia," Henderson said last night, the night when Brown's Charlotte Bobcats drafted him with the 12th pick of the first round of the NBA draft.
Larry Brown, coach. Michael Jordan, legend-in-charge. There are worse places.
"I'm really looking forward to playing for him and learning a lot of things," Henderson said. "In the workouts I've had with him, he teaches a lot. I'm looking forward to just learning things from him and definitely being around Michael every day, that'll be a great thing for me, to be around the best player that's played this game. So I'm really looking forward to that."
The rumors all along had Henderson going to Charlotte, a Duke Blue Devil playing for all of those North Carolina Tar Heels. But you never know about rumors. And so, as Henderson and his family gathered in the NBA green room, which is really a roped-off area at the foot of the stage where commissioner David Stern makes the announcements, well, you never knew.
Gerald Sr. was there, of course. Familiar from his NBA playing days, and his Comcast SportsNet analyzing days, he betrayed no nerves. He just looked like himself - and especially if you had ever seen him on the set over at SportsNet. He was there, wearing a pair or reading glasses perched low on his nose, carefully cataloguing each pick in a notebook.
All business. Only when the pick came could you read the emotion on his face - pride, happiness, and one other.
"Relief," Gerald Sr. said. "It was a great relief, I'll tell you that much. Everybody had him going 12th to the Bobcats, but you never know. Behind the stage, in Charlotte and Philly and everywhere else, a lot of deals were [proposed] prior to the draft. It takes a lot of perseverance to stay there and sweat through this. But it worked out. It was out of our hands from the beginning, so we just let God take care of it."
And now he has landed in Larry Brown's familiar lap. The family has had a chance to consider that for a while. On the one hand, Brown is not genetically disposed to giving young players their heads. On the other hand, his credentials as a teacher of the game are unparalleled.
"He's a great coach, a great teacher - what else could you hope for?" Gerald Sr. said. "Larry and I have had conversations about Gerald way in the past. Larry understands his game like nobody else. He's going to be in a good situation. Right out of the bat, Gerald is going to have a good teacher. That can only work in his favor.
"Coach is going to bring these kids along. He's got to play the talent. They needed a wing player so Gerald will get to play some. He's just going to have to earn his minutes - that's all there is to it."
Henderson is an interesting player, and he is a very willing defender (which Brown will love). He needs to improve on pretty much everything, but they all do. It tends to happen, too, once they pay you the money and make it a full-time deal.
There is another thing about Henderson, too - self-awareness. You sense it immediately when you talk to him. Going into his last year at Duke, for instance, he knew he had to develop a pro's attitude if he wanted to be a pro - and so, he did.
"I've worked on my skills, my shooting, my ballhandling, my defense - I've worked on all that," he said. "But the big thing for me was just really having a bigger ego when I was on the court. Coach K last summer preached to me: That'll be the biggest thing, for me to really believe I'm a good player. That's the first to being a good player, believing that you are and that you can be. I took that attitude into the season."
And now comes the next step. It was such a different world when Gerald Sr. played. The whole process was much different. The father said last night, as he has many times, "You have to let him go sometimes, let him grow."
Which he did. When the pick was made, Henderson remembered, "He just told me I made it. I've worked so hard to get to this point and he just congratulated me and told me I made it. It's good to hear those words . . .
"He's let me go. He's given me some advice here and there but he's let me go through it and I've really grown by myself." *
Send e-mail to
hofmanr@phillynews.com, or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at
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