{"id":95193,"date":"2024-09-11T13:51:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T17:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=95193"},"modified":"2024-09-25T00:34:35","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T04:34:35","slug":"nba-unc-basketball-john-henson-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/11\/nba-unc-basketball-john-henson-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Former UNC Basketball Standout Announces Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight-year NBA veteran John Henson<\/a> has officially retired, sharing the news with RG.org\u2019s Spencer Davies in an exclusive interview. Last seen on an NBA court in Mar. 2020, the 33-year-old reveals that he initially made the decision<\/a> after attempting to revive his career with Puerto Rico\u2019s Balencesto Superior Nacional.<\/p>\n

Former UNC Basketball Standout John Henson Announces Retirement<\/h2>\n

\u201cI knew a couple of guys that went over there,\u201d Henson says. \u201cBrandon Knight, my guy Ed Davis. I saw DeMarcus Cousins go over there. I said, \u2018I commend you guys for making it ’cause I couldn’t do it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, ‘Alright, well, that’s gonna be it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The stranger thing is that had the COVID pandemic not thoroughly infiltrated the U.S., his world might not have been turned upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played 11 games with the Pistons; I ended up starting. So I’m like, ‘Okay, well I can get my feet up under me. People are gonna be able to see that I’m healthy.’ Boom, season ends, we don’t go to the Bubble. So it was an unfortunate string of bad luck.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After that experience, many players would\u2019ve put forth every effort<\/a> to get back in the league. However, the big man insists that basketball was \u201cnever life or death,\u201d so he took a different approach. Henson decided his best option was to finish getting his college degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could’ve fought. I could’ve went the G League route and tried to work my way back, but I’ve always just been a guy that basketball’s never life or death for me or my life.<\/p>\n

I’m not gonna sit here and bang my head against the wall. My first initial thought was let me finish my education and let me see what happens, and then we’ll go from there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, if there\u2019s any question about whether he would be open to a return if presented the chance, he reiterates: \u201cI\u2019m done bro\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so blessed to play this long,\u201d Henson reflects. \u201cIt’s a lot of opportunities, man. It’s just a matter of one step at a time. I’m only 33, so I have time to explore and figure out what I want to do next. This is just the next phase, and we’ll see where it takes me. But so far, so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another \u2018What-If\u2019 Story<\/h3>\n

One of the players whose injury history leads to \u2018what-if\u2019 hypotheticals<\/a>, Henson is now invested in the sports media world.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s hardly alone in this venture, as several NBA veterans look to make that career change after retirement. Though he was unable to reach the heights he wanted as a professional athlete, he still performed at a higher level than most people who pursue that path. As a result, he has a valuable and relatively unique perspective that networks salivate over.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s disappointing that his playing days ended so unceremoniously. As a lottery pick out of blue blood UNC, where he was twice named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year, he entered the NBA with high expectations. Him playing just 445 career games, and starting in just 160 of them, was a letdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight-year NBA veteran John Henson has officially retired, sharing the news with RG.org\u2019s Spencer Davies in an exclusive interview. Last seen on an NBA court in Mar. 2020, the 33-year-old reveals that he initially made the decision after attempting to revive his career with Puerto Rico\u2019s Balencesto Superior Nacional. Former UNC Basketball Standout John Henson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":95226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,9,15,62,3],"tags":[1390,1028],"class_list":["post-95193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-bucks","category-nba","category-news","tag-john-henson","tag-unc"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}