Scoot Henderson's NBA Book Club

Photographs: Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte

It took skipping college to make Scoot Henderson a reader.

Growing up, the Blazers rookie didn’t consider himself a bookworm, or anything close to one. Reading put him to sleep, and books were never something he sought out away from school.

“I was always playing sports, unless we had a book report,” Henderson said recently, before a mid-March road loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. “But I didn’t really like it growing up.”

Subtracting book reports from the equation might be the answer. In the two years he spent with the G League Ignite, though, Henderson developed a reputation among his teammates—for, of all things, reading like a madman.

“He reads all the time,” Shareef O’Neal, Henderson’s former Ignite teammate, told The Ringer in 2022. “He’s always in his room, locked in on a book.”

Henderson, the 20-year-old who went No. 3 overall in the 2023 draft, explained that the habit started with his decision to skip college and spend two years in the NBA’s minor league. At his going away party, a family friend gave Henderson a copy of Don Ruiz’s The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. The popular self-help book, which spent a decade on The New York Times best seller list, joined him on his cross-country trip from Georgia to Walnut Creek, California, where the team was based its first two seasons. In his first year with the Ignite, Henderson lived around the corner from a park and would walk there and read. He’s an old school reader, too: no Kindle, no Nook. Physical copies only. He has designs on having his own personal library, which is why he doesn't have a library card.

As a newly-minted professional, Henderson had increased free time and was trying to find ways to fill it. One day, he decided to pick up the book and see what it was all about. From there, he was hooked—in part because, at 19, he was busy figuring out what sort of pro—and person—he wanted to be. “I think that’s why I started reading when I got to the G League, because I was really trying to figure out who I was,” he said. “I knew who I was, but I didn’t know who I wanted to be and who I wanted people to know me as, so that’s why I started reading. And just find different ways of how I want to be perceived.”

The Four Agreements helped him with that—and spurred a new desire. “I wanted to read more like it,” Henderson said.

And he has. To his surprise, the self-help books have unintentionally spilled into helping him on the court. He cited Robert Greene’s international best seller The 48 Laws of Power, a book that draws on philosophies from leaders throughout world history. He’s tasked with becoming the Blazers’ next franchise player; in a season in which they’ve struggled to win, the book has helped him make sense of his job.

“I think The 48 Laws of Power has helped me—just little things in there like a whole bunch of stories from old leaders and how they handled situations,” he explained. “But it was more about the process than the outcome.”

Henderson has a good track record with books gifted to him. His oldest sister, Diamond, got him The Purple Cow by Seth Godin—on its surface about business and marketing. But the book also celebrates the power of standing out—being a purple cow in a cattle full of regular ones. The book, one of Henderson’s favorites, resonated deeply. He’s long been unafraid to be different— such as graduating high school early and joining the Ignite instead of going to college.

Like The 48 Laws of Power, it made him think about himself as both a player and a person.

“It was a great book and just talked about how you have to be different nowadays,” Henderson said. “A lot of people have new ideas, and you just have to be thinking outside the box. On the court, you can’t be the same player everyone wants you to be. You got to be something different—somebody that can handle the ball, that can shoot the ball, that can drive, that can make plays for teammates and be an unselfish player. It resonated to me all around as both the person I want to be and a person who wants to be different and unique and authentic.”

Henderson is currently reading Meditations: A New Translation by Marcus Aurelius, another gift—this time from Trailblazers strength coach Dale Boyd. He expects his reading intake to increase over the offseason, where he plans to broaden his taste beyond self-help books.

When he was drafted by the Blazers, his family told him Portland is known for having one of the nation’s biggest book stores in Powell’s City of Books. Henderson hasn’t been yet, but said he plans to visit.

For now, Henderson is looking for ways to turn his love of books into an off-court venture. He said his approach to reading as a kid is a good reminder of the attitude plenty share—so he’s thinking about ways to help turn his fans and friends onto the idea.

“I was actually thinking that last year a little book club or ‘bring your book and explain it,’ would have been pretty fun,” Henderson said. “I tried it with my friends. My friends are not huge readers, so you’re just like, ‘Alright bro.’ But they would listen. But I think it would be huge for me to try and impact the community, at least my community, in that way.”

Originally Appeared on GQ