BIO: Leon Hofeni Nehemiah Henry was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand.

He attended Mount Albert Grammar School and Avondale College.

A rugby league player in his early days, he discovered basketball as a 12-year-old at a holiday camp run by then-Auckland Stars coach Tab Baldwin.

Baldwin gave Henry a Tall Blacks trial when he was 18.

He debuted in the New Zealand NBL with Wellington Saints in 2004 where he won two NZNBL title in 2010 & 2011. He since has won another four NZNBL championships.

He also played five seasons in the Australian NBL, where he was a member of the New Zealand Breakers’ 3-peat championship contingent between 2010/11 and 2012/13.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Leon Henry made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 25 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

Henry joined the Breakers as a development player in 2010. This season the Breakes were led by Kirk Penney (20.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists), Gary Wilkinson (15.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists), CJ Bruton (11.0 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.8 assists), Thomas Abercrombie (10.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.6 assists) and Mika Vukona (8.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists) and finished the regular season on top of the ladder (22–6).

New Zealand went on to reach their first-ever NBL Grand Final defeating Perth in the semifinals (2-1) and then Cairns in the Grand Final series (2-1). Bloxham saw limited opportunities to play, appearing in 3 games and failed to score.

2011/12
In 2011/12, Henry averaged 2.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 0.5 assists, playing a key role in the Breakers rotation, helping the team finish in a first place (21-7).

2012/13
In 2012, the Breakers looked to become the second team in league history to record a three-peat. While Cedric Jackson, Leon Henry, Thomas Abercrombie, Dillon Boucher, Mika Vukona, CJ Bruton, and Daryl Corletto all re-signed, a major decision made this off-season was to not re-sign leading scorer Gary Wilkinson (to Europe) in favour of elevating promising Kiwi centre Alex Pledger into the starting lineup. Import forward Will Hudson (via Gold Coast) signed as his replacement, while Corey Webster, who had sat out the previous season due to a 12-month suspension for the use of banned substances.

The Breakers recorded a number of historic moments this season, beginning with Jackson recording his first career triple-double with 28 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against the Melbourne Tigers (November 30, 2012). It was only the second triple-double recorded since the NBL went to 40-minute games at the start of the 2009/10 season.

By February, the Breakers extended their longest winning streak record to 11, a record that by mid-March had been extended to fifteen straight games.

New Zealand (24-4) finished on top of the ladder for a second consecutive season with Jackson (14.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 2.8 steals) leading the league in assists and steals for the second straight season. Jackson was a obvious choice for the league’s Most Valuable Player and was also selected to the All-NBL First Team for the second consecutive season. Mika Vukona and Thomas Abercrombie were selected to the All-NBL Second and Third team’s, respectively, and Andrej Lemanis was voted the Coach of the Year.

New Zealand faced Sydney in the semifinals and swiftly eliminated them in two games. Abercrombie (15 points and 3 rebounds) and Jackson (11 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals) leading the Breakers in game one (81-64) and Bruton (21 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists) and Pledger (18 points and 12 rebounds) taking charge in game two (99-88).

New Zealand progressed to the Grand Final series, where they would face off against Perth in a Grand Final re-match of the previous year. The Wildcats entered the series shorthanded, having lost starting guard Damian Martin to a Achilles injury prior to the playoffs. Brad Robbins came out of retirement to cover the loss, but with the team missing Martin, the Breakers defeated Perth easily in two straight games. Game one (79-67) saw Corletto (19 points on 7-10 shooting) catch fire and in game two (70-66), the Breakers were led by Bruton (16 points) and Jackson (14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals). Jackson was subsequently named Grand Final MVP as the team delivered a historic three-peat win.

Henry would appearing in 31 games, averaging 3.5 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists.

2014/15
2014/15
Townsville were able to secure the services of star import Brian Conklin for another season, and together with the development of young players like Todd Blanchfield and Mitchell Norton looked to improve in Shawn Dennis’ second year as coach. Veterans Peter Crawford (Adelaide) and Russell Hinder (Retired) were not re-signed, and underperforming import Joshua Pace was replaced with former NBA shot blocker Mickell Gladness.

Dennis replaced the outgoing Crawford and Hinder with Mackay product Clint Steindl and New Zealand born Leon Henry.

While Townsville became quite a force at home, they were never able to win consistently on the road. Townsville’s home success saw the team finish with a winning home record (8-6) for the first time since 2012, but due to finishing with only three wins on the road all season (11-17 record).

High spots for the season included Blanchfield (14.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists ) receiving high-profile recognition across the league and even appearing on a number of NBA radars after winning the NBL’s Most Improved Player and earning a spot on the All-NBL Second Team. Conklin (18.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists) delivered a even better second season with the Crocodile’s. He shot 50.7 percent shooting from the field and finished fourth in the league in scoring, including a 33 point and 11 rebound effort in a 79–75 loss to the Cairns Taipans. Conklin finished the season being named the NBL’s Most Valuable Player as well as earning a spot on the All-NBL First Team.

Henry appeared in 28 games during the season to average 5.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.9 assists.

2015/16
Front office changes and financial limitations saw the Crocodiles struggling to gain clarity on their future in the competition, resulting in player recruitment becoming extremely challenging for Townsville. The first impact of this saw Todd Blanchfield, who earned the NBL Most Improved Player the season prior, relocate to Melbourne and sign with the re-branded Melbourne United. Coach Shawn Dennis would sign Nicholas Kay, who was returning home after four years at Metro State College of Denver and then rounded out the rest of the roster by signing players happy to play for near league minimum contracts, mostly young talent unable to latch on with other team’s or veteran players other team’s had given up on. Luke Schenscher (via Adelaide), Corey Maynard and Mitchell Young (both via Cairns) were clear examples of that.

NBL MVP Brian Conklin was re-signed and appointed team captain and paired with incoming import Jordair Jett.

The season began with two consecutive losses to Melbourne United (84-99) at home and New Zealand (81-89) in New Zealand. But then, in surprising fashion, Townsville, who had won a total of three away games the previous season, defeated Sydney (80-77) and Perth (66-63) on their home floor in back-to-back rounds.

Townsville’s season quickly turned sour after that, highlighted by their 31-point defeat at the hands of Melbourne in late October and having the worst record in the league (2-9) after the first few months of the season. Then, when the team faced the Perth Wildcats at home, Conklin was involved in a ugly on-court incident involving Perth Wildcats guard Damian Martin Martin. During the fourth quarter of the Crocodiles win over the Wildcat’s (89–77), Conklin’s errant elbow collided with and broke Martin’s jaw. Despite a call from Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze for Conklin to be suspended for at least six weeks, the NBL cleared Conklin of any wrongdoing. A similar situation arose during a brutal loss to Adelaide (65-89) less than two weeks after the Martin encounter, where Conklin (21 points and 12 rebounds) was in the spotlight again for another elbow incident, this time for striking 36ers forward Mitch Creek in a similar manner. He subsequently received a three-match suspension, with two of those games suspended for the rest of the season.

By the end of November, sitting at the bottom of the ladder (4–10), Townsville terminated Conklin’s contract due to what the club claimed was a number of ‘sub-par performances’. Conklin (13.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game) later took to social media to share his version of the truth, which pointed the finger at Townsville wanting to reduce costs as the reason for his release. The Crocs would bring in a former college teammate of Patty Mills, Omar Samhan (13 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.1 blocks), as Conklin’s replacement a week later.

Schenscher (4.1 points and 3.1 rebounds) also struggled with injuries and with nine games remaining, Townsville chose to add Harry Froling (1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds), a member of Townsville’s junior program, as an injury replacement player for him.

While Jett (15.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals) struggled in the team’s early games, he would explode during the second half of the season, leading the team in scoring with Mirko Djeric (5.3 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.9 assists) delivering his best season to date. With Townsville now firmly focused as a team, their work was rewarded in the second half of the season, winning half of their remaining games (7-7). This included a upset victory over Adelaide will go down in Townsville history as perhaps the most exciting finish to a game. The win showcased the fighting qualities instilled in the Crocs and even in the most unlikely circumstances, a team must play to the final buzzer.

Despite again finishing with a winning record at home (8-6) but only three road wins for the season, Townsville would finish second last on the ladder (11-17) with Jett being awarded the Kevin Sugars Medal (club MVP). Henry would appear in all 28 games, and average 4.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 0.9 assists.

Leon Henry played five seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Townsville Crocodiles. He averaged 3.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 112 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (825 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.