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Bullets See the Point, Take Henderson

After almost four hours of watching, the Washington Bullets finally participated in the NBA draft last night when they selected Ronnie Henderson, a 6-foot-4 junior guard from Louisiana State, with the 55th pick.

Henderson, who went to high school in Jackson, Miss., with former Georgetown center Othella Harrington, led the Southeastern Conference in scoring in each of the past two seasons and averaged 20.3 points per game for his three-season career.

Bullets General Manager Wes Unseld said Henderson had been projected as a late first-round pick, but many teams backed off of him in part because he missed six games last season because of minor knee surgery.

"He's a very talented young man. He's had some problems, but from what we can tell, he's over those," Unseld said. "We think this a chance we're willing to take."

The Bullets hope he can fill the void left by the absence of shooting guard Tim Legler, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament late last season and is likely to miss most, if not all, of the first half of the upcoming season. Unseld said he received an update on Legler's rehabilitation yesterday and that "Legler's doing great, he's right on schedule. But that schedule is in January. We have to have some help until Legler's back."

Legler was the NBA's top three-point shooter last season. Unseld said that Henderson "can shoot the three, but he's a scorer."

The Bullets also looked at big men such as Marquette's Amal McKaskill and Michigan State's Jamie Feick, but both were taken before the Bullets selected.

The Bullets traded their first-round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers last summer in exchange for Mark Price. That wound up being the 12th overall selection, which the Cavaliers used to take forward Vitaly Potapenko of Wright State. Washington's second-round pick (No. 42 overall) went to Orlando for Scott Skiles in a 1994 trade. That pick later went to Vancouver and then to Houston in subsequent transactions. Houston used the pick on Louisiana State point guard Randy Livingston.

Washington's 55th pick came from San Antonio via Charlotte when Michael Adams was traded in 1993.

Early in the second round, Unseld and Lynam gave a brief news conference, even though there was no news to report yet. Coincidentally, as Unseld stood at the lectern, his predecessor, John Nash, appeared on the giant television screen behind him to discuss his new job as general manager of the New Jersey Nets.

When asked what preparing for the draft had been like in his first year as general manager, Unseld said, "With the 55th pick, it hasn't been too tedious."

That's not to say they hadn't been working in the days leading up to the draft.

"Jimmy has probably talked to every coach and I've talked to every general manager about the possibility of doing something," Unseld said. "That's an exercise that we all go through just because it's there. We're supposed to do that. To say that anything was seriously considered . . . . We at one point thought that something was happening, but it was just an exercise in jockeying for position."