Updated: November 12, 2009
'T-Rel' and 'E' make unlikely duo
By Matt Winkeljohn
Special to ESPN.com
The search for a tag-team label is tricky, but search you must, because upon pairing the nation's No. 1 high school basketball player with the No. 1 tackle prospect for a brief tour of hoops terror on the AAU circuit, you have something so cool that a joint calling card seems essential.
Antwan Harris for ESPN.com
Harrison Barnes and Seantrel Henderson formed an unlikely partnership playing AAU ball.
Heckle and Jeckle come to mind, but the cartoon magpies were acidic and cynical, which fits neither Ames (Iowa) High hoops star Harrison Barnes nor St. Paul (Minn.) Cretin-Derham Hall offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson.
Laurel & Hardy? Nah.
Stan Laurel, the happy, easygoing half of one of the great comedy tag teams of the early 20th century, was super-slender. Easygoing? That's Henderson. But at 6-foot-8, 337 pounds, the tackle and slender don't dance.
Abbott & Costello? Closer.
Stan Abbott was a lean straight man in a mid-20th-century chuckles tandem, and that description fits the 6-6, 190-pound Barnes. He founded his own Bible study group and absorbs education and intellect as though it matters most (summer reading: "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth").
Plus, when Henderson and Barnes were teammates on the Twin Cities-based Pulley Panthers for three spring-summer tournaments on the AAU circuit, Henderson pinned the straight man's role on Barnes by frequently busting his chops.
"Oh, all the time," Henderson said when asked how often he gigged Barnes. "He is super-serious. He never stops. He's pretty much different than a lot of guys. He really takes basketball and school seriously."