Trail Blazers News: Scoot Henderson Reveals Moment He Realized He'd Made It

Portland Trail Blazers rookie point guard Scoot Henderson has had an inconsistent start to his NBA career, but he sounded fairly excited just to be at the table at a recent presser.

During his press obligations for NBA All-Star Weekend's Rising Stars event, the No. 3 pick out of the soon-to-be-defunct G League Ignite spoke about a lot of things, starting with when he knew he had "made it" in the NBA.

"My first game against [nine-time All-Star point guard and 2017 MVP] Russell Westbrook," Henderson said. "Always growing up and watching Russell Westbrook highlights and stuff. He played me and they [the LA Clippers] whooped us and I was like, alright I’m here now so let’s turn it up a notch."

Henderson has battled injuries and inconsistent offense this season, to say nothing of his defense. Across 57 games (just 27 starts), Henderson is averaging 13.5 points on a horrifically inefficient 38.4% field goal shooting (31% from deep on 4.1 attempts) and 81.2% field goal shooting. He's also chipping in five assists, 3.1 rebounds and 0.7 steals. He reflected in the same presser about how he wants to improve.

"I think most of it is little things and just continue to understand the game," Henderson said. "Continue to understand certain situations of the whole basketball game, whether its time on the clock or time management. As a point guard you gotta watch those things the whole game... Just little things like that and I think that’ll make me a great in this league."