National Basketball Association

Pistons' Reggie Bullock opens up on transgender sister's murder in must-see interview

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:11 p.m. ET

Andrew Lynch

In July 2014, Detroit Pistons guard Reggie Bullock faced the unthinkable.

His sister, Mia Henderson, who was born as his brother, Kevin Long, was murdered in Baltimore, Maryland, the city where Bullock was born. Her body was reportedly discovered in an alley, and an arrest was made more than a year later.

On Friday, Bullock joined Nick Wright on "The Herd" and opened up about the murder, how he processed the situation, what he learned from Mia, and, in a particularly heartbreaking moment, why police were originally unable to identify the body.

So you mentioned your siblings. You had a brother, named Kevin Long, who then turned into your sister, named Mia Henderson. Transgender, and then murdered. Okay. So like all of that just hits you in the face. I want to go back if I can. When Kevin came to you and said to you, “I’m Mia.” How do you process that?

"It wasn’t so tough because I’d kind of seen it coming on at an early age. Me and him was the first two childs. So I’d actually seen it, because it was me and him, I’d just start seeing him transfer over. And it wasn’t so tough because, like I said, he just lived as himself. He taught me to be myself, to take care of the family, to just be yourself. He was happy being who he was. He wasn’t worried about how others felt about him. And a person that can isolate the whole world out and not care about other people’s feelings is a strong person to me. So I think that was one of the biggest things that I got from him."

So locker rooms in general, especially male locker rooms, it’s not the most progressive place in the world. There’s a lot of language that probably in polite culture isn’t used, but is maybe used in there. Because of who your brother and then sister was, did it help you evolve, so to speak? I don't know where you were before, but like, a more progressive, open-minded, accepting person?

Yes, definitely. A lot of people joke and do all these type of things about those type of people, but it touches me. Because I had a brother, I had a person that was close to me that was that way. So never will I laugh, never will I do any of those types of things about people who go through different ways in life. He was just strong. That was pretty much the thing that I just got from him. He left me with that, and so I go about my life.

This will be the last thing on this. How are you informed of the murder? And how do you process it? And was she murdered because of the life that was being lived?

I was with one of my best friends. This is how I was informed about the murder. I was with one of my best friends, I was coming out of the Clippers locker room, and I had had multiple calls from my younger sister and a text message from a DA in Baltimore, who was telling me pretty much call this number back as soon as possible, we have some information to tell you. So I called my sister back, she told me that they killed Mia. They killed Mia. So I hang up and call the DA, the DA tells me. So pretty much just getting his body from Baltimore, Maryland, to North Carolina was just the toughest thing for me to do.

Pretty much, when they told me they couldn’t identify him as a person, couldn’t identify my brother as a person and didn’t know who his family was in Baltimore ...

Because he was beaten so badly?

Yeah, exactly.

Jesus. Did they catch the perpetrator?

Yes. That was off DNA under the fingernails.

In that moment, you want to go find him yourself?

At the moment, yes. At the moment, I did. Honestly.

At the time of the murder, Bullock shared his goodbye on Twitter:

The suspect in Henderson's murder was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison on an unrelated charge. He is still awaiting trial on charges of first-degree and second-degree murder in the Henderson case.

All I can say is my brother showed me how to live your "OWN LIFE" love you soo much man. Gone but not forgotten #RIPKEVIN
— Reggie Bullock (@ReggieBullock35) July 16, 2014