CHICAGO -- Tony La Russa was extolling the virtues of Rickey Henderson as a Hall of Famer and one of the all-time great players in Major League Baseball history during a 20-minute Zoom with Chicago writers on Sunday, when he quickly changed direction.

“Great player, great teammate,” La Russa said. “One of a kind. As good as any player who has ever played the game.”

Henderson, who was born in Chicago, passed away at the age of 65 as announced by his family on Saturday, drawing messages of tribute from not just across baseball but across sports and even various entertainment platforms. The man with a Major League record 1,406 stolen bases and 2,295 runs scored was that influential on and off the field.

La Russa managed Henderson for seven seasons during his run with the Athletics from 1986-95. Henderson was acquired from the Yankees on June 21, 1989, and was a featured contributor as part of the team winning one of La Russa’s three World Series titles.

Even before they were working together at an elite level, La Russa knew all about Henderson as an opponent. His Hall of Fame managerial career with the White Sox began in 1979, at the same time when Henderson began his career.

“I really appreciated, respected the talent of Rickey from the other side,” La Russa said. “He was the most dangerous player on the other side in a tie game or you are one run ahead. The all-timers, he’s on the team.

“Not just a guy with an explosive start but that stance with the small strike zone but if you threw a strike, the leadoff homer. And he was smart, his baseball I.Q. He learned to be a great base stealer, learned to be a better hitter.”

Henderson told La Russa a few years ago how his 3,055 career hits was one statistic he never expected. He didn’t think there would be enough at-bats with his 2,190 walks and .401 career on-base percentage.

Over the past three months, La Russa saw Henderson three or four times. He had heard Henderson was not feeling well, but there wasn’t any indication it was life threatening which was part of the shock.

“If you looked at him like we looked at him, we commented, ‘Look how great he looks. He could still play,’” La Russa said. “Very very difficult to accept.”

There were phone calls and text chains between members of those Athletics teams starting Friday and still going Sunday morning, discussing Henderson’s death, according to La Russa. They also discussed the early passing of Dave Henderson, Tony Phillips and Bob Welch from this special group.

“That’s probably the most important conversations we were having late Friday, Saturday and this morning," La Russa said. "The reality of Rickey as a person, teammate, friend and player and greatness."

Sunday’s conversation with the Chicago media focused on Rickey Henderson and his sensational nature as a person and as a player.

“One of the realities of Rickey’s career and we knew it against him, was that he was so dangerous that teams focused on stopping him. And look at the career he had,” La Russa said. “People went through all the extremes to stop him and you couldn’t stop him. I was just in awe.

“Our teammates were in awe of how hard he played. There were a lot of attempts to intimidate him which never made us happy. You couldn’t scare him and you couldn’t stop him … I appreciate the opportunity to share the truth about who he was besides his statistics. Good person, great teammate, great friend.”