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“I’m tired of doing all this stuff for free. And this is where you make your money, the NCAA tournament.”
Those were the words that Ole Miss star guard Marshall Henderson uttered early on in the 2012-23 NCAA Tournament, leading many to believe that the brash, showboating junior SG from Hurst, Texas was calling his college career quits after this year and declaring himself eligible for the NBA Draft. Well, apparently that wasn’t true, and it just further proved that Henderson is full of words. Granted, he’s also full of talent, but NBA-ready talent? That’s up for debate.
Not up for debate is the fact that Henderson is widely loathed by pretty much every fan that doesn’t wear Ole Miss gear, and if he is indeed returning to the SEC Champion Rebels for his senior season, then he’s going to have a colossal bull’s eye on his back. You know, more colossal than the one he knows he already has.
Henderson’s Tourney run ended when Ole Miss wasn’t able to hold off No. 13 La Salle in a 74-72 loss, and the passionate SG didn’t handle it too well, as he presented a very special gift to the rowdy fans in Kansas City – his middle fingers. Henderson later claimed that the fans were mocking him for his troubled past, which included an arrest for buying marijuana with fake money, as well as testing positive for cocaine. He also claims the fans said some less than pleasant things about his sister, leading to his brief salute that was quickly squashed by an Ole Miss staffer.
Perhaps his response was all the proof we needed that Henderson and his fiery demeanor aren’t yet ready for the NBA, where fans will yell a lot more about his sister than he’s ready to hear. So he could probably treat his next game at Auburn Arena as a warm-up for his days in the pros, since those Tigers fans are probably frothing at the mouth for their biggest thorn to return.
That game may lead to a full-scale riot and it will be phenomenal.
In celebration of Beef Thursday, #BeefThursdays is a weekly column dedicated to worst feuds, issues and fights in the world of sports. Be sure to share your choices for With Leather’s beef of the week with the appropriate hashtag (#beefthursdays) and make your voice heard. In case we haven’t typed beef enough yet, “beef.”
