Drew Henderson (born March 19, 1971) is an American-Dutch retired professional basketball player and coach and a current university administrator. He has played and coached internationally. Henderson has also been a member of the

Dutch national basketball team The Netherlands men's national basketball team () represents the Netherlands in international basketball matches. The national team is governed by Basketball Nederland. The Dutch have reached the European Basketball Championship on 16 occasio ...

Early life

Henderson was born in New York. A 6'7" multi-sport athlete as a child and excelled at basketball, football, and boxing. At age 15, Henderson moved to

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

and attended

McQuaid Jesuit High School McQuaid Jesuit High School is an all-male, Catholic, Jesuit, college preparatory school run by the USA Northeast Jesuit province of the Society of Jesus in the metropolitan area of Rochester, New York. The school is named Named after Bernard John M ...

, where he played basketball and won a state championship his junior year. He then earned a basketball scholarship to

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2023, the university had about 5,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,200 gra ...

Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull, Easton, Connecticut, Easton, Weston, Connecticut, W ...

College career

After his freshman year at Fairfield, Henderson was chosen as a member of the All-Freshman Team of the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...

(MAAC). Henderson led the MAAC in rebounding during his junior and senior seasons (1992, 1993) and was in the top 10 of the country in this category in both seasons. He was also chosen to the all-MAAC first team during these seasons. He became the first player in Fairfield University history to compile over 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 100 blocked shots. Henderson still holds the rebounding record at the school (1,080). He also holds the record for most assists in a single game with 20. In 2017, Henderson was inducted into the Fairfield University Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Henderson began his professional career with the USBL after being drafted in the first round and being coached by NBA Hall of Fame member

Nate "Tiny" Archibald Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born September 2, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City–Omaha Kings ...

. This led to a 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics in 1994, although he never appeared in a regular season NBA game. After this, Drew went on to Europe and played professionally in seven countries over an 11-year career. He led the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

in rebounding for three consecutive seasons.

National team career

On November 19, 2000, Henderson played one game for the

Netherlands national basketball team The Netherlands men's national basketball team () represents the Netherlands in international basketball matches. The national team is governed by Basketball Nederland. The Dutch have reached the European Basketball Championship on 16 occasi ...

in a friendly game against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, after being selected by coach

Maarten van Gent Maarten Herman van Gent (22 March 1947 – 14 April 2025) was a Dutch basketball coach, manager, scout and businessman. Biography Van Gent was born on 22 March 1947. He started playing basketball at age 17. He also played korfball and soccer i ...

Personal life

Henderson transferred to the field of higher education upon retiring from basketball, which was caused by a car accident that injured his knee. He is currently an experienced university professor, administrator and English teacher in the Netherlands . Henderson earned his master's degree in the Netherlands during his basketball career.

References