Sonja Henning

Not to be confused with Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie.

Sonja Henning

Medal record
Women’s Basketball
Representing the United States
U18 and U19
	1988 U18 Sao Paulo, Brazil	Team Competition
FIBA World Championship
	1990 Malaysia	Team Competition
Pan American Games
	1991 Havana	Team Competition

Sonja L. Henning (born October 4, 1969) is an American attorney and former collegiate and professional women's basketball player. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, she grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, where she attended Horlick High School.

Stanford University

She attended Stanford University and played for its women's basketball team from 1987 to 1991. She helped the Cardinal win the 1990 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship game, defeating Auburn University. The following year, Henning was named Pac-10 Player of the Year and a Kodak All-American in her senior season.

An economics major, Henning graduated from Stanford in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

After graduation, there were few opportunities for women to play professional basketball in the United States at the time, so Henning started her professional career playing in a women's professional basketball team in Uppsala, Sweden in 1992.

USA Basketball

Henning was a member of the USA Women's U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event was known as the Junior World Championship Qualifying Tournament at the time. The event was held in August 1988, when the USA team defeated the host team Brazil by a score of 70–68 to win the championship. Henning sank two free throws with under one second remaining in the game to win the final game and the gold medal.

Henning represented the USA at the World Championships held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 1990. The team won all eight games, earning the gold medal. Henning scored 2.0 points per game.

Henning also played with the USA team at the 1991 Pan American Games. The team finished with a record of 4–2, but managed to win the bronze medal. The USA team lost a three point game to Brazil, then responded with wins over Argentina and Cuba, earning a spot in the medal round. The next game was a rematch against Cuba, and this time the team from Cuba won a five point game. The USA beat Canada easily to won the bronze. Gordon averaged 3 points per game.

Duke University

After playing one season in Sweden, she enrolled in Duke University Law School in 1993 where she obtained a Juris Doctor in 1995.

Shortly after graduating from Duke, Henning starting working as an attorney specializing in labor and employment law for the Littler Mendelson law firm in Los Angeles, California.

Resuming professional basketball

In 1996, the American Basketball League (ABL) was formed, and Henning tried out for a playing spot on a team in the new league. Henning was eventually drafted by the San Jose Lasers, a team which also featured former Stanford players Jennifer Azzi, Anita Kaplan, and Val Whiting.

She played for the Lasers for two seasons, then joined the Portland Power until financial difficulties led to the ABL's demise in 1998.

Henning joined the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) after being selected in the second round (24th overall pick) by the Houston Comets during its 1999 WNBA Draft and helped the Comets to its third straight WNBA championship season. During that same year, she also served as the president of the WNBA Players Union.

In 2000, the WNBA held an expansion draft for current players to join newly formed teams. Henning was selected by the Seattle Storm and played with the team from 2000 to part of the 2002 season until she was traded back to the Comets.

After the 2002 season ended, she became a free agent, and signed a contract with the Washington Mystics on May 5, 2003, but was waived by the team three weeks later. In June 2003, Henning signed a contract with the Indiana Fever and played for them during that season.

Henning served as president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association from 2001 to 2003.

She retired from the WNBA in 2004.

Life after basketball

After serving two years as general counsel for Lucy.com, a startup Internet company that sells women's sporting apparel, Henning joined the law firm Tonkon Torp LLP, in Portland, Oregon. She is currently an attorney specializing in labor and employment litigation matters.

Sonja left Tonkon Torp and took a position with Nike in Beaverton in a marketing role.

Henning currently serves on the board of directors for the Urban League of Portland.

In May 2005, Henning was elected to a seat on the Portland School Board with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Career statistics

WNBA Career Totals

Year	Team	G	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	FTM	FTA	3PTM	3PTA	REB	AST	STL	TO	BLK	PTS
1999	HOU	32	32	798	52	117	11	18	13	41	80	74	34	29	7	128
2000	SEA	32	32	980	53	151	37	61	25	66	86	79	61	54	3	168
2001	SEA	32	28	902	41	129	18	35	8	44	71	93	52	43	6	108
2002	SEA	8	5	207	8	22	2	4	0	4	26	15	9	7	1	18
	HOU	23	10	521	18	52	5	11	3	12	58	51	23	36	6	44
2003	WSH	1	0	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
	IND	23	1	290	11	42	2	8	0	9	25	29	14	13	0	24
Totals		151	108	3,703	183	514	75	137	49	176	346	341	194	182	23	490

WNBA Career Averages

Year	Team	MIN	FG%	FT%	3PT%	REB	AST	STL	TO	BLK	PTS
1999	HOU	24.9	.444	.611	.317	2.5	2.3	1.1	0.9	0.2	4.0
2000	SEA	30.6	.351	.607	.379	2.7	2.5	1.9	1.7	0.1	5.3
2001	SEA	28.2	.318	.514	.182	2.2	2.9	1.6	1.3	0.2	3.4
2002	SEA	25.9	.364	.500	.000	3.3	1.9	1.1	0.9	0.1	2.3
	HOU	22.7	.346	.455	.250	2.5	2.2	1.0	1.6	0.3	1.9
2003	WSH	5.0	.000	.000	.000	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	IND	12.6	.262	.250	.000	1.1	1.3	0.6	0.6	0.0	1.0
Totals		24.5	.356	.547	.278	2.3	2.3	1.3	1.2	0.2	3.2

WNBA Career Playoff Totals

Year	Team	G	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	FTM	FTA	3PTM	3PTA	REB	AST	STL	TO	BLK	PTS
1999	HOU	6	6	136	8	23	2	6	1	9	18	11	7	7	1	19
2002	HOU	3	3	48	0	9	0	0	0	2	4	4	1	2	0	0
Totals		9	9	184	8	32	2	6	1	11	22	15	8	9	1	19

WNBA Career Playoff Averages

Year	Team	MIN	FG%	FT%	3PT%	REB	AST	STL	TO	BLK	PTS
1999	HOU	22.7	.348	.333	.111	3.0	1.8	1.2	1.2	0.2	3.2
2002	HOU	16.0	.000	.000	.000	1.3	1.3	0.3	0.7	0.0	0.0
Totals		20.4	.250	.333	.091	2.4	1.7	0.9	1.0	0.1	2.1

External links

• Tonkon Torp LLP biography
• WNBA player profile
• 2004 Stanford Magazine article: Whatever Happened To...Sonja Henning
• 2003 Indiana Fever article