The NBA Finals date back to 1947 (when they were known as the Basketball Association of America Finals) and the very 1st NCAA tourney was held in 1939. Olympic basketball competition is even older: it debuted as a demonstration event in 1904, and the men’s version became a medal sport in 1936, with the women finally getting their chance to go for the gold in 1976. The United States has dominated Olympic basketball competition from the start: the men have now won 17 gold medals in the 20 tournaments they have participated in during the past 88 years, while the women have won 10 gold medals in the 12 tournaments in which they have competed during the past 48 years. While we must wait 3 years until the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will fill the void by interviewing as many prior Olympic players/coaches as possible. We continue our coverage by chatting with Lea Henry about her connection to Pat Summitt and winning a gold medal in 1984.
You were born/raised in Georgia: what made you choose Tennessee for college? My dad played college basketball, so I was basically born with a ball in my crib: he also coached me for a couple of years during high school. I grew up not far from Auburn and was a huge Tigers fan, but they did not have a strong program at the time. I saw that Tennessee coach Pat Summitt was recruiting players from Georgia so my dad called her to see if I could attend her basketball camp. She said there was a National Sports Festival taking place in Colorado Springs with a South regional in Memphis and that I should go there. I made the South team and later made the US junior national team. I was also considering Louisiana Tech/UCLA, but after my 1st visit to Tennessee I knew that I wanted to go there.
You played PG for Coach Summitt and then spent 2 years as her grad assistant: what made her such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from her? She just had a knack for getting the best out of her players via motivation. Most players were afraid of her but not me: we had a close relationship, so I wanted to please her (as if she was a parent). The players respected her…while also having a little fear. We were all good offensive players, but she focused a lot of our practice time on defense.
In the 1982 Elite 8 you played 43 minutes in a 1-PT OT win over USC: how on earth were you able to beat a team featuring future Hall of Famer Cynthia Cooper and the McGee twins? That was when their program was starting to become powerful, but we were already 1 of the most respected teams in the country and Pat always had a game plan. We were just a better team: they were younger but we were tougher.
In the 1983 Sweet 16 you played 45 minutes in a 7-PT 3-OT win over Mississippi: what is the key to winning games in OT in March? The key is your mindset: we were in great shape and we expected to win. Pat was the 1st women’s college coach to use male practice players, which made us tougher. We spent a lot of time in the weight room and Pat expected us to win and pushed us to win. If we lost a game then it was horrible, but I was the same way when I coached.
You were All-SEC as a senior and a 2-time Academic All-American: how did you balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? I was well prepared and found that high school was harder than college. Whatever I am doing, I want to do the best I can. Studying and going to class was just part of my day. Pat provided us with academic tutoring so if I was struggling with a class then I would get some help. I did not have a big social life and was very committed to my academics/athletics.
You played for Team USA at the 1984 Olympics: what did it mean to you to represent your country, and what did it mean to you to win a gold medal while playing for your college coach? It was by far the highlight of my career as a player: it is an understatement to say that it was a dream come true. I told my father when I was a kid that I wanted to play in the Olympics, and he told me to work hard and make good decisions along the way. Having Pat as our Olympic coach made it off-the-charts special. We had a great bond since I was her PG, but she created a grad assistant position that allowed me to lead the guys’ practice squad against her team. I also did some color commentary, which gave me a different perspective. I asked Coach Billie Moore what I had to work on to improve my chances of making the Olympic team, and she gave me a handwritten list of workouts I could do to improve my quickness. Pat told me to start playing racquetball, and eventually I was able to finish sprints not that far behind Teresa Edwards. Once you win a gold medal it is how you get introduced the rest of your life: people really admire it, and I could have never done it without Pat. She knew that she could count on me because I would run through a brick wall for her. I was in the starting lineup, which was important to me. It meant so much to my entire family: when we were standing on the podium with the flag being raised, my grandfather said he stood up at attention in his living room while watching us on TV!
In the 2002 NCAA tourney as head coach at Georgia State you had a 30-PT loss to the Lady Vols: what was it like to face your former coach in Knoxville? I knew they were going to do that because we did not have the talent they had, but it was still special. I had Pat come speak to my team because I had talked about her so much and they loved her: you would have thought that the president had walked into the room! She was so humble that it was like we were talking to a regular person off the street. We had a small guard who could take you off the dribble: Kara Lawson was a great player but could not stop her. We were only down by single-digits midway through the 2nd half and Pat was so proud of me.
In January of 2009 you had a 13-PT win over Old Dominion: how big a deal was it to defeat Coach Wendy Larry and her 17-time defending conference champs? I knew Wendy very well, but her team had a lot of injuries that year. It was a big win for us, but there were other circumstances involved. Wendy came outside after the game, saw me, and screamed, “Get it while you can!” I recall playing at ODU during my very 1st game as coach at Mercer: I had a 6’3” player named Andrea Congreaves who was 1 of the best players in the country. We won the game, which was 1 of the highlights of my career: it was a “guarantee game” where they paid us $5000, which was a lot back then.
You were inducted into the Tennessee Lady Volunteer Hall of Fame in 2005, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Georgia State Hall of Fame in 2019: where do these rank among the highlights of your career? They are all very special and important, but they do not define you. I have served on some Hall of Fame committees, but have not yet made the Women’s Hall of Fame…even though every other PG who played on an Olympic team has made it. I played with several other Hall of Famers at Tennessee, but went my own way and moved on with my career after graduating. I still treasure those memories, but my family is the most important thing to me. I might have been successful at other programs but wanted to be around my family, which I will never regret. I made those 1st 2 as a player but Georgia State was my 1st Hall of Fame as a coach.
You have spent the past several decades running the L&G Camp of Champs: what makes your basketball camp different from other ones? When I was a little girl, I loved going to basketball camps. I would beg my dad to let me go for 2 weeks and he said I would have to figure out how to pay for the 2nd week. I made a commitment to myself that after retiring as a player I would give back my providing opportunities to children. We hold a camp for 2 weeks at my dad’s former school with 160-170 kids each week, which is a win. Now we have some kids whose parents attended in the past, so it is like a family. I am married to Greg Manning, who was a great player at Maryland for Coach Lefty Driesell before being drafted by the Nuggets. We decided to start a business and host a camp. We incorporate basketball to teach kids some character education. We started with 11 programs but eventually were doing 65 per summer. It is geared toward underprivileged kids and we send staff to several sites to follow our curriculum.
