This is no surprise, John Henson has been out of the NBA since 2020 (and hasn’t played internationally since then either), but he made it official this week.
Henson said he retired from basketball to focus on his broadcasting career, speaking to Spencer Davies of RG.org.
“I’m done bro lol,” Henson texted RG.org with an old man emoji in explanation. “I’ve been so blessed to play for so long. There’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 I lead [with] all those companies and have all this interest kind of drummed up, I’m grateful.”
Henson, a 6’9″ forward, played three seasons of college ball at North Carolina and his junior year averaged 13.7 points a game on 50% shooting plus grabbed 9.9 rebounds a game.
After being drafted #14 in 2012 by the Bucks, he played the next seven years in Milwaukee. He played one more season after being traded to Cleveland and then Detroit, but battled injuries (wrist and hamstring) that year. During his career he averaged 7.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. While Henson said there were opportunities in the G-League and elsewhere after 2020, he decided to walk away.
“I could have fought. I could have gone the G-League route and tried to work my way back, but I’ve always just been a guy that basketball is never life or death for me or my life,” Henson said. “I’m not going to sit here and beat my head against the wall. My first initial thought was to let me finish my education and let me see what happens, and then we’ll go from there.”
Henson has focused on his broadcasting career, and this season he will be a color commentator for ACC games and serve as an analyst on SiriusXM’s ACC Today program, he said in this report. For the past two seasons, Henson has been on The Bettor Half Hour on MSG Network.
