Marshall Henderson


Marshall James Henderson is an American professional basketball player who last played for Pavia Basket in the Italian Serie C-Gold league. He played college basketball for the Ole Miss Rebels.

High school career

Henderson was a standout basketball player for L. D. Bell High School in Hurst, Texas. He played for his father, Willie Henderson, and scored 2,289 points in his career. As a senior, Henderson was All-County and District MVP as he averaged 25.8 points, 5.1 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.8 steals.
Henderson was rated as the number 57 shooting guard and given a scout grade of 87 in the class of 2009 by espn.com. He committed to play college basketball for Utah, turning down scholarship offers from Bradley, Gonzaga, Notre Dame, and Stanford.

College career

Freshman year

In Henderson's first and only season at Utah, he started 30 of 31 games, and averaged 27.4 minutes per contest. He was second on the team with 11.8 points per game, and also had 2.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game. He scored a season high 24 against TCU in an MWC game. At the end of the season, Henderson earned honorable mention All-Mountain West honors, and Utah finished 14–17.

Sophomore year

Henderson transferred from Utah to Texas Tech after his freshman season, and in turn he had to sit out the 2010–2011 season. At the end of the 2010–2011 season, Texas Tech fired coach Pat Knight, so Henderson decided to transfer again, this time to South Plains Junior College. He never played a single game at Texas Tech. His sophomore season finally started during the 2011–2012 season at South Plains. Henderson led South Plains to a 36–0 record, a #1 NJCAA ranking, and a NJCAA national championship. Along with having great team success, Henderson was the Western Junior College Athletic Conference MVP, a NJCAA first team All-American, and the NJCAA Player of the Year.

Junior year

For his junior season, Henderson transferred from South Plains to the University of Mississippi. Henderson started 33 of the Rebels' 36 games, and averaged an SEC-high 20.1 points per game in 31.5 minutes per game. Henderson also averaged 3.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Henderson led Ole Miss to a 27–9 record, including an SEC conference tournament crown and an automatic bid in the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. He also was the SEC Newcomer of the Year, second team All-SEC, and SEC Tournament MVP. Ole Miss received a 12 seed in the West Region and upset 5 seed Wisconsin in the second round, behind Henderson's 19 points. In the third round, Ole Miss was defeated by 13 seed La Salle 76–74; Henderson turned in a 21-point performance on 8-21 shooting.

Senior year

Henderson missed the first regular season game against Troy, making his return versus the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and scored 19 points in a 72-70 win. He had a controversial altercation while playing against Penn State, where he got into it with two fans who were heckling him. He scored 19 points on the way to a 79-76 victory. He had one of his worst games against Kansas State, in which he went four for eighteen for 13 points. However, he immediately followed up with one of his best games, against Oregon, scoring 39 points against 13th ranked Ducks and fell 3 points short of breaking the Southeastern Conference record. Henderson also missed the first two regular season SEC games versus in-state rival Mississippi State and Auburn. He returned for conference play against LSU and scored 25 points and went 7-16 in shooting, including 6-12 from beyond the arc, as well as a four-point play. He also tallied a career-high 7 assists versus the Tigers. Against Mizzou, Marshall Henderson scored 29 points and added another 5 assists. Against then #2 ranked Florida Gators, Henderson scored 22 points in the first half, but the Florida defense shut Henderson down in the second half, winning 75-71. Against Alabama, Marshall Henderson broke Pat Bradley’s record for consecutive games with a 3-point shot with 61. Henderson's record currently stands at 66 games. Versus instate rivals Mississippi State, Marshall Henderson and Jarvis Summers led the Rebels to a comeback win. Down 13 points in the second half, Henderson willed the team to a victory, scoring 21 points. In the SEC Tournament Quarterfinals versus Georgia, Henderson had one of the worst games of his career, scoring 19 points and shooting 5-21 and 2-16 from beyond the arc.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the 2014 NBA draft, Henderson landed a tryout in Italy that led to short contracts with Orsi Derthona Basket Tortona and OpenjobMetis Varese. After the Italian jobs dried up when teams became more interested in acquiring a true point guard and a veteran, Henderson's next stop was Qatar. On November 1, 2014, he signed with Al Rayyan Doha of the Qatari Basketball League. A week later, he was a member of the 2014 Arab Club Championship team, where he earned MVP honors. His stint with Al Rayyan lasted until January 2015, with his last game for the club coming on December 31. In nine league games for Al Rayyan, he averaged 17.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
In mid-February 2015, Henderson signed a $10,000 per month contract with Naft Al-Janoob of the Iraqi Division I Basketball League.
On September 18, 2015, Henderson signed with the Sacramento Kings. However, he was later waived by the Kings on October 15 after appearing in one preseason game. On November 2, he was acquired by the Reno Bighorns of the NBA Development League as an affiliate player of the Kings. On November 27, he was waived by Reno after averaging 6.8 points and 1.2 rebounds in four games.
On October 25, 2016, Henderson signed with Pavia Basket in the Italian Serie C-Gold.
Since April 2017 following his season in Italy, Henderson has not had a professional basketball contract and plays recreationally in Dallas, Texas.

Basketball Tournaments

In 2017, Henderson played for Ole Hotty Toddy of The Basketball Tournament. Henderson's team was eliminated in the first round by Team NC Prodigal Sons. The Basketball Tournament is an annual $2 million winner-take-all tournament broadcast on ESPN.

Off-court issues

In the spring of 2012, Henderson spent time in jail stemming from a 2010 forgery charge. Henderson used $800 of counterfeit money to buy marijuana in 2009 and was caught. He spent 25 days in jail as a result. However, the reason he wasn't jailed until mid-2012 for a charge stemming from 2010 is that he violated his probation in January 2012, having tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in Tarrant County, Texas.
On May 12, 2014, Henderson came under fire on Twitter when he posted a pair of homophobic tweets, targeting openly-gay NFL player Michael Sam. He later claimed that his tweets were part of a social media psychology experiment for a gay friend and Psychology student.