Kendall Gill remembers traveling to Pittsburgh for a prestigious basketball camp before his senior year at Rich Central.

It was 1985, and Gill, a former Illinois and NBA guard, was building his name locally. His friend and rival, Crete-Monee senior guard Phil Henderson, was establishing a national reputation.

Henderson, a former Duke captain who played on three Final Four teams, died Sunday at his home in the Philippines. The University Park native was 44. According to multiple reports, he died of cardiac arrest.

"He was my Joe Frazier," said Gill, who played 15 seasons in the NBA and is an analyst for Comcast Sports Net and the Big Ten Network. "Without him, I don't know if I would have been as good as I was. He was a guy I respected and he pushed me. We had some great battles. We played at the University Park YMCA every week. He was a great friend and I'm happy that I had the opportunity to know him."

Not long after Gill and Henderson made that trip to Pittsburgh, both became known.

"Phil wanted to be ranked in the top 100 in the country," Gill said. "We both made the all-star team. He was so proud of being named to the top 100. He came back to Crete-Monee and had a great senior year and made the McDonald's All-American team. It was a great time, and we both made names for ourselves coming from our tight corner in the south (suburbs)."

Simeon graduate Nick Anderson, a former Illinois star and guard for the Orlando Magic, played with Henderson in the 1986 McDonald's game. And he almost played with him in college. Henderson left Duke the summer before his senior year to transfer to Illinois, but returned to Duke nearly six weeks later.

"It would have been extra trouble (for teams) with Phil on our team," Anderson said. "We were already trouble. I remember talking with (Phil) about how much talent we had in Chicago and the state of Illinois. We were trying to score as many points as we could in that McDonald's game. I'll miss him."

Crete-Monee athletic director Gene Cahan arrived at the school as an assistant baseball coach when Henderson was a student, and got to know him better when he returned to run basketball camps.

"He wanted to get more involved with the community he was from," Cahan said. "Kids were impressed with where he had played and what he had done. He was one of them. He was from the neighborhood. It was great. Kids really looked up to him as a role model."

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Henderson is survived by five children -- Genesis (21), Harrison (15), Adonia (6), Athalia (5), and Azriel (4) --and was working as the director of the Filipino Basketball Academy at the time of his death.

Henderson averaged 21.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3 steals and 1.7 blocked shots per game during his senior year at Crete-Monee. Henderson and Gill faced off in the South Inter-Conference Association South Division in high school after meeting during their freshman year.

"I would come over to his house all the time, and he would come to my house and my grandmother's house," Gill said. "We would call each other every day. I had a lot of things planned to do (Monday), but I haven't done anything. I've been a couch potato all day. It's a big-time loss. I'm very sad about it."

Henderson was the founder and president of the All-American Basketball Academy in Tinley Park. He was the leading scorer and a captain for Mike Krzyzewski's 1989-90 Duke team that lost to UNLV in the national championship game. He averaged 18.5 points per game as a senior and finished with 1,397 points, 330 rebounds, 217 assists and 128 three-point field goals in 115 games. Henderson was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 49th pick in the second round of the 1990 NBA draft. He didn't play in the NBA, but played professionally in the CBA and overseas.

"On behalf of the entire Duke basketball family, we are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Phil Henderson," Krzyzewski said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to his mom and family. Phil was a talented player and a good man with a gentle soul. We will miss him dearly."

Colleen Kane contributed to this story

Phillip T Henderson