Today in Celtics history: Gerald Henderson born
Some of you younger Boston fans may be confused, asking yourself when exactly Henderson played for the Celtics, but that's probably because his son (Gerald Henderson Jr.) never played for the Celts, and is currently with the Philadelphia 76ers. His father, on the other hand, spent his first five seasons in the NBA with Boston, and was a key player for the 1983-84 championship team.
Henderson is perhaps best known for stealing a pass by James Worthy of the Los Angeles Lakers and subsequently tying the score of a game the Celts would later win in overtime - Game Two of the 1984 NBA Finals. Henderson would later recall in a post-game interview the strange feeling of hearing legendary announcer Johnny Most use nearly the same words he had 19 years earlier to describe his iconic call of a similarly decisive play by John Havlicek in the 1965 NBA finals.
On this date in 1984, @celtics Gerald Henderson stole a crosscourt pass & laid it in w/13 secs left to send Game 2 of 1984 NBA Finals to OT.— Pete Newmann (@petenewmann) May 31, 2016
Gerald Sr. won championships with Boston in 1981, and in that 1984 series before being traded to the Seattle Supersonics in the fall of that year. In some ways, that trade planted the seed of the wilderness era of the 1990s and 2000s, as the pick Boston received in exchange for Henderson would become the ill-fated Len Bias, who died just days after being drafted by Boston in 1986.
Henderson spent time playing with the New York Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Milwaukee Bucks before winning his third and final championship with the Detroit Pistons in 1990. Gerald would have one more stop before retiring in 1992, playing for the Houston Rockets.
Here's a video of that amazing steal to remember the elder Gerald Henderson's time in Beantown. Happy Birthday, sir!
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Photo via www.NBA.com
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