AFBLog

July 26 2005 Paoli PA Reuters- Kevin Henderson sheepishly admitted in the locker room, “I didn’t really want the ball.” But he did receive the ball and boy did he deliver. In what will go done as the most thrilling moment in AFBL history in the month of July Henderson sank a shot that ended the thrilling three game series between the leagues only two teams.

Both teams entered into the third game of this best of three series knowing that their week wait between games could either be an unadulterated high of champagne, women, men and more champagne or a low of self contempt and personality crisises. With this on their minds they began what will go down the young annals of AFBL lure as a entirely serviceable game. The one team pounced early getting ahead to a ten point lead and then turned on the coasters. Then the other team came roaring back on the strength of their ‘live by the three die by the three’ mentality that their coach had preached all season long. Before long the game was sent into sudden death overtime, knotted at 31-31, and “Crazy” Don Kahler was sent into add some muscle down low. Unfortunately his brawn wasn ‚t enough.

Kevin Henderson came into this off season after a 15 day stint on the disabled list. „I talked to Coach, my doctors, my family and most importantly god and I made a decision to rest before this big series. Henderson who saw his numbers slip from 18.23 points per game to a paltry 5.12 during the regular season was rumored to be battling back spasms all season long, although he never let on that this was the case, perplexing fans and media alike. Perhaps its not in his personality to admit weakness, as his long time chum turned rival for the night Ben Jones says, “The warrior in him, yo, straight up, like that kid is tough and ain’t nobody taking him off the court. That’s real son.” His realness proved to be the difference maker for when the time came for him to step up, he did.

In the early minutes of the sudden death overtime Henderson sat in the left corner, left open. Instead of one of his usual thrilling, slicing and dicing moves to the basket he sized up an 18 footer and let it go. The ball rolled around the rim as a collective AFBL breath was held. As it dropped in the exhale was strong enough to dwarf the storm that had developed before the game. Metaphorically speaking, fans stormed the court and confetti rained down. Henderson ran off the court, index finger extended informing the doubters as to who was number one, to search for some champagne, some women, some men and some more champagne. And someone may or may not have shouted “Slow down you‚ve got all week to enjoy it.”

Additional notes: Joe’s x ray on his twisted ankle turned out to be negative, Jay Yarow was reassigned down to the AFDBL in Brooklyn for work on his game. John Freeborn, Ben Jones, future considerations and cash were traded for Joe.