Were Episcopal’s Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson Philly’s Best High School Duo Ever?
On Wednesday (December 2), the Detroit Pistons announced that Episcopal Academy alumnus, Wayne Ellington, had signed with them as a free agent guard.
This week marks 17 years (December 4, 2003) since Ellington and his co-superstar at Episcopal, Gerald Henderson, Jr. – first found their names appearing together in a Philadelphia Inquirer story.
By the time they graduated high school in 2006, they were both among the most highly recruited basketball players in the country. Ellington went on to star at the University of North Carolina (UNC), while Henderson led his teams at nearby rival, Duke.
In their Junior and Senior years, the Episcopal “Churchmen” were 40-0 in Interacademic League Play, and 52-7 overall. And as seniors, both Ellington and Henderson were named as McDonalds All Americans.
Ellington played three seasons at UNC, averaging 14.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. In his last season in the college ranks, he led the Tar Heels to an NCAA Championship.
Henderson’s college stats are slightly less stellar than Ellington’s. But then again, how many people do you know who can claim to have led Duke in scoring for a season, and were named to the ACC’s First Team?
Henderson’s pro statistics are comparable to Ellington’s. Neither one of them is a candidate for the Hall of Fame, but you wouldn’t exactly describe the former Duke star’s appearance in 535 NBA games, over the course of eight seasons, as “a cup of coffee.” Henderson put up the best numbers in his pro career during the 2012-2013 season, when he averaged 15.5 points per game for the Charlotte Bobcats. A hip injury ended Henderson’s NBA career after the 2016-2017 Season.
Ellington will soon be starting his 12th season in the NBA. So far he has played in 681 games, with 12 different teams. He has averaged 8.0 points per game.
Ellington and Henderson are Millenials.
They were both born in 1987. It would not be surprising for any Philly hoop fans of that cohort, or younger, to not be able (without googling) to name another pair of high school studs that even approached the Episcopal Boys. But such pairs do exist.
Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble
Our local Gen Xers, and surely some older Philly Folk, with memories still intact; might suggest that the Wayne and Gerald Jr. Combo is anything but a slam-dunk for the title of Best Philly High School Duo Ever.
On March 11, 1985, the day after Dobbins Tech won its first ever Philadelphia Public League title in a major sport, Ted Silary wrote in The Daily News:
Yesterday, even after the fluorescent lights flicked off, illumination was still in abundence. That’s how much [Bo] Kimble lit up the place as Dobbins swooshed and bulled – at different times, the overflow crowd of 5,000 [at Temple’s McGonigle Hall] saw different methods – past Southern, 86-62 … It’s a shame “flair” and “charisma” are already part of the dictionary. If they weren’t, he could have used his play to invent them.
Silary also wrote: As stellar as Kimble was, the 6-4 forward had only a sliver on 6-6 center Eric “Hank” Gathers when it came to getting a rise out of the applause meter.
Both Kimble and Gathers scored 27 points against Southern. Kimble also had 12 rebounds and three assists, while Gathers had 14 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.
After high school, Kimble and Gathers both played as freshmen for USC. Both sat out the following year, and both played three exraordinary seasons for Loyola Marymount University (LMU).
LMU was the top scoring Division I team, all three years that Kimble and Gathers played there. During their Junior year, Gathers led all scorers in NCAA Division I, averaging 32.7 points per game. And in their senior year, Kimble was the top scorer in NCAA Division I, averaging 35.3 points per game. That same season Gathers averaged “only” 29.0 points per game.
After college, Kimble played two NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers, and then nine games in an injury plagued third season with the New York Knicks.
Tragically, Gathers died in March of his senior year (1990), after collapsing during a game with the University of Portland. He was 23 years old.
Wali Jones and Walt Hazzard
Wally Jones and Walt Hazzard played together for Overbrook. They won City Titles in 1958 and 1959 (when the Public League Champions played the Catholic League Champs, for all the marbles and bragging rights). Then they lost to West Philly in the Public League finals in 1960.
Both of their college and pro careers hold up very well when compared to the aforementioned wunderkind.
Walt Hazzard went west after high school, recruited to play for UCLA by the legendary Johnny Wooden. In 1961-1962, during his sophomore year (the NCAA didn’t allow freshman to play then), Hazzard scored 13.2 points per game. The Bruins went 18-11, and nobody outside of Los Angeles and Philadelphia knew who he was. The following season, Hazzard upped his scoring average to 16.3 points per game, and UCLA improved to 20-9. That year, they lost to Arizona State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
But 1963-1964 was a whole different story. UCLA capped a 30-0 season by winning the NCAA Championship. And Hazzard, having averaged 18.6 points per game for the season, was named Tournament MVP. And everybody knew who he was.
Hazzard went on to play 10 seasons in the NBA, averaging 12.6 points per game. During the 1967-1968 season with the Seattle Supersonics, he played in the NBA All-Star Game. That season he he averaged 24 points per game.
Walt Hazzard at UCLA
Wally Jones source Villanova.com
If this was a competition for who earns the most nostalgic love among old Philly Basketball Heads, “Waly Wonder” woud win that prize in a walk.
While the stats he put up over his three seasons with Villanova (61-62, 62-63, 63-64) are perfectly respectable (16.8 points and 4.4 rebouds), they don’t begin to reflect the level of excitement that Wally Jones brought to Big 5 Basketball (he didn’t become Wali until later in his NBA career).
After Villanova, Jones played his rookie NBA season (1964-1965) with the Baltimore Bullets. The following season he was traded to the 76ers, and played six seasons with them, averaging 11.8 points per game. For three of those seasons (1965-66, 1966-1967, 1967-1968) he teamed up the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. Their 1966-1967 team won the NBA Championship, and is considered to be among the greatest NBA teams ever.