Road to Duke
Phillip Terry Henderson was born April 17, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in University Park — a small, working-class village in the south suburbs, about forty miles from downtown.
At Crete-Monee High School in Crete, Illinois, Henderson became a sensation. Senior year: 21.8 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 5.5 APG, 3.0 SPG, 1.7 BPG. He led the Warriors to a 24-win season — the best in school history. First Team All-State. McDonald’s All-American. Parade All-American. The best player in the south suburbs of Chicago.
His rival and friend was Kendall Gill, who played at nearby Rich Central. They battled every week at the University Park YMCA. Gill, who would play fifteen NBA seasons, called Henderson his Joe Frazier — the opponent who made him better, the friend whose excellence demanded excellence in return. Gill chose Illinois. Henderson chose Duke.
In the summer of 1986, Henderson arrived at Duke for a six-week precollege program. There he met Robert Brickey, a fellow highly touted freshman from Fayetteville, North Carolina. They played pickup against David Henderson — no relation, a senior guard on Coach K’s team — and from the first day, the bond was forged. They would spend four years side by side and go to three Final Fours together. Brickey would later say Henderson was a fun-loving guy who loved life and loved basketball. That was the whole of it. That was enough.
At Duke
Phil Henderson played 115 games at Duke and appeared in three consecutive Final Fours — 1988, 1989, 1990. Few players in Duke history have spent as much time on basketball’s biggest stage. 1,397 career points, 330 rebounds, 217 assists, 128 three-pointers.
The defining moment: March 26, 1989, East Regional Final at the Meadowlands. Duke faced Georgetown — John Thompson, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo. The Hoyas were the dominant team. Duke had freshman Laettner, but he wasn’t yet the Laettner the world would know. Henderson took the ball down the lane. Mourning — 6-10, future Hall of Famer — rose to challenge him. Henderson did not hesitate. He dunked in Mourning’s face. The Meadowlands erupted. As much as any single play, that dunk broke Georgetown’s aura and announced that Duke belonged at the highest level. Coach K referenced it years later when Duke returned to the same building.
Senior year, 1989–90: 18.5 PPG regular season, 22.3 PPG in tournament play. All-Tournament at the ACC Tournament, East Regional, and Final Four. Second-Team All-ACC. Co-MVP with sophomore Christian Laettner — the senior who dunked on Mourning and the sophomore who would become the most famous player in college basketball history, sharing the award shoulder to shoulder. The passing of the torch.
The UNLV championship game: 103–73. The worst loss in Duke history. But the foundation Henderson helped build — the belief, the toughness forged in three consecutive Final Fours — was the ground on which the dynasty stood. The following season, Duke beat UNLV and won the first of back-to-back titles. Henderson had graduated, but the dynasty was built on what he helped create.
After Duke
Dallas selected Henderson 49th overall in 1990. He never played an NBA game. He played in the CBA, averaging 12.7 PPG. The Global Basketball Association. Professionally in Belgium and Mexico. A basketball life lived in leagues most fans have never heard of, far from the Cameron Indoor roar.
Henderson returned to the south suburbs and founded the All-American Basketball Academy in Tinley Park, Illinois. He ran camps for kids in the community he’d come from. He coached the Crete-Monee boys’ basketball team in summer sessions. Athletic director Gene Cahan: ‘He wanted to get more involved with the community. He was one of them. He was from the neighborhood.’ Henderson taught footwork, pivoting, setting screens — the things nobody wants to work on but everybody needs.
In 2004, he met Shervonne while running coaching clinics at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. They married in 2005, had three children: Adonia, Athalia, and Azriel. He also had two older children, Genesis and Harrison. The marriage lasted four and a half years; they divorced in 2012. Henderson moved to Manila, Philippines, where he became director of the Filipino Basketball Academy, coaching and teaching the game to kids.
Where Is He Now
On February 17, 2013, Phil Henderson died at his home in Manila of cardiac arrest. He was 44 years old. His girlfriend and children were home. She found him unresponsive. He could not be revived.
Robert Brickey, his teammate since the summer of 1986, got the call and begged the caller to tell him they had the wrong name: ‘Please tell me you’ve got the name wrong, or you went to the wrong apartment, tell me you made a mistake.’ Kendall Gill, who called him his Joe Frazier, said he was grateful to have known him. Gene Cahan said kids looked up to Henderson as a role model. He was from the neighborhood.
Coach K: ‘Phil was a talented player and a good man with a gentle soul. We will miss him dearly.’
A good man with a gentle soul. That is the phrase Coach K chose. Not the dunk on Mourning. Not the 22.3 points in tournament play. Not the three Final Fours. A good man with a gentle soul.
He is survived by five children: Genesis, Harrison, Adonia, Athalia, and Azriel. Inducted into the Basketball Museum of Illinois Hall of Fame in 2015. He was born in Chicago and raised in University Park. He battled Kendall Gill at the YMCA. He was a McDonald’s All-American at Crete-Monee. He arrived at Duke in the summer of 1986 and met Robert Brickey on a pickup court. Three consecutive Final Fours. The dunk on Mourning. Leading scorer on a championship-game team. Co-MVP with Laettner. Drafted by Dallas, never played in the NBA. CBA. Belgium. Mexico. Trinidad. The Philippines. He taught kids to pivot and set screens in Tinley Park. He died at 44, in Manila, teaching basketball. He was a good man with a gentle soul. The Brotherhood lost him too soon.