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."
