Scoot Henderson: “I’m gonna go number 1 in the draft”

We are fully immersed in the NBA playoffs, with the climax of the season fast approaching and with a key milestone just around the corner: the draft. It’s an important moment for franchises - especially for those who choose higher up the list, and even more when an aspiring legendary player appears on the scene. And that’s the case in 2023: French center Victor Wembanyama is the most talked about player since LeBron James. He has everything he needs to be the player of a generation, decisive out on court and a dream capture for whichever franchise ends up winning the number 1 pick. At 7′ 2″ feet tall and an incredible 8 foot wingspan, he has the all the movement of a point guard, the shooting skills of a forward and a physique that has never been seen on a basketball court - at least not with all those extra attributes.

Antetokounmpo praised Wemby as the future of the NBA, a player who would mark a new era. LeBron anticipates great things from the 19-year-old. It has already been calculated that just by drafting him and adding him to their brand, the franchise who secures him will add about $500 million to their value. In the meantime, the teenager from Le Chesnay, to the west of central Paris, has chosen to keep out of the spotlight and the demands of the Euroleague to play for Metropolitans 92, where he is spared the overload of games or being thrust into limelight (at least as much as is within his control - his games have been watched in the US through the NBA app). Wembanyama has worked on his physique, he has prepared his body to be less prone to injury and diligently follows a strict training program supervised by his own personal coaching team.

Wemby will be number 1 pick in the draft. But the player with the most options of being number 2 (or maybe even No.1 if there is an astronomical surprise) is not so clear: “I know I’m gonna go one.” Scoot Henderson told GQ magazine this week in an in-depth cover story. When asked if going first overall really matters, he replied: “Yes, of course. Who doesn’t want to go one?” Another big star in the making.

Sterling Henderson - or Scoot as he is more commonly known for the way he glides around the court, a nickname he was given by his family as a child. He is the second youngest of seven siblings. And he has three sisters (Diamond, China and Onyx) who played college basketball. Now they are part of his close inner circle and are in charge of his styling, handling his social media accounts... If Wembanyama got himself noticed in the Euroleague, something which was unthinkable a few years ago in Europe, Scoot has not even played in the NCAA. At the age of 17, he became the youngest professional in American basketball when he signed for two seasons and a million dollars in total with Ignite, the great experiment in training the NBA in its Development League, the G League. The big universities could not capture him, and nor did he follow the path of others who prefer to be professionals but leave the country. His case may be especially interesting when the movements of young basketball prodigies are analyzed in the future.

Raised and raised in Georgia, he averaged 32 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in his junior year. An explosive point guard, with a devastating first step and 6 foot 2 tall. He didn’t even make it to senior level because he chose to go to Ignite as soon as he could. The team created in the G League to attract talent and which produced the numbers 2 and 7 picks in the 2021 draft (Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga) and number 8 in 2022 - Dyson Daniels. With headquarters spanning from California to Nevada, and based near Las Vegas, this is a team that offers contracts of up to half a million a year, college scholarships and professional training in all the fields and a comprehensive training program that includes matches against teams from the G League and against others from outside the US.

In his second game with Ignite, Scoot scored 31 points and also pulled down 6 rebounds and added 5 assists. He went through the All Star Rising Stars of an NBA bent on making this the most attractive possible alternative to college. And in October, when the season was heating up, two games between the Ignite and the Metropolitans were organized in Las Vegas. In other words, between a Wembanyama who marveled (37 points, 7 triples and 5 blocks in the first game) and a Scoot Henderson who was injured during the second game... but finished the first game with 28 points, 9 assists and the victory. Wembanyama himself praised him, in his own way: “If I was never born, I think he would deserve the first spot”.

For months, Scoot has seemed a dead cert for the No.2. Now some flirt with the idea of him being number 3. Alabama forward Brandon Miller has won plaudits, although for many, that is only down to the hype that generally accompanies March Madness, the great university tournament And also to the enormous appeal that Miller’s profile has in the NBA - a forward with a broad shooting range.

Scoot, meanwhile, is biding his time. Well surrounded and already preparing training with the franchises prior to the draft: “I have always dreamed of being an important name. I want people to know who I am. Don’t brag about it, show how hard I’ve worked and how I really am.” Still far from the NBA, he signed a seven-figure contract with Puma and has other advertising deals. NBA players like Jaylen Brown have been with him to give him advice: “He said, you gotta start small first. He had a deal with Mazda and got all his people cars. But with Mazda, though”.

In Las Vegas and his particular idiosyncrasy (“You got to be 21 to be in Vegas, dang near”), he trains, reads, practices meditation and prepares to take the big leap. Also, as he tells GQ, he spends a lot of time playing video games, especially Harry Potter: “I want to be a wizard for real. When I grow up, I’m gonna have something in my house where I need a wand to open the door. That might be childish, but I don’t care.” At 19, he is being compared to the likes of Derrick Rose and Ja Morant and credits those October matches against Wembanyama with the amount of attention they garnered: “I wanted people to know I’m here too.”