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Houston native ready to work
Playing for his fourth NBA team at age 22, high-flying Gerald Green appreciates the value of staying grounded
By FRAN BLINEBURY Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 19, 2008, 12:47AM
Doug Pensinger Getty Images
On his fourth team in 16 months, Gerald Green returns to Houston tonight as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.
Speed kills. That’s the old saying.
While it hasn’t yet snuffed out the dreams of Gerald Green, it does have him clinging to his NBA career like a sports car with two wheels dangling over the edge of a mountain road.
There was his meteoric rise as one of the top schoolboy athletes in the nation and his quick jump as a teenaged first-round draft pick in 2005, followed by a rapid, plummeting descent.
In the last 16 months, the 6-8 guard has been on four NBA rosters, handed around from Boston to Minnesota to Houston and now Dallas like an old toaster on the flea-market circuit.
Being released by his hometown Rockets after just 16 days and four minutes of playing time was the unkindest cut of all. Yet it could be the inspiration he needed.
“A lot of things have happened to me that I didn’t expect to happen,” said Green, who is back in town tonight with the Mavericks. “But really, I thank the Houston Rockets for cutting me. I thank them because they really did me a favor. They really woke me up.”
Green had lived in something of a fantasy world from the time he first made the JV team as a sophomore at Dobie High School in Pasadena. He made the varsity team as a junior, but academic problems ended his season. He transferred to Gulf Shores Academy, a charter school in Houston, and averaged 33 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists as a senior. He was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game and led all scorers with 24 points and won the slam dunk contest, boosting his image as a high-flying phenom.
College bypassed
Three months later, Green was a member of the Boston Celtics (18th overall pick), having chosen to bypass his commitment to Oklahoma State and skip college entirely. He averaged 10.4 points for the Celtics in his second NBA season. But it was his win in the 2007 NBA slam dunk contest at Las Vegas that furthered Green’s reputation as more of a carnival act than a player. That was cemented last February in New Orleans when he finished as the runner-up in the slam dunk contest to Dwight Howard, even after blowing out a lit candle stuck in a cupcake sitting on the back of the rim.
“When you go up and blow a candle out that’s sitting on the rim and you don’t win, I mean, that’s another sign that dunk contests aren’t the be-all and end-all,” said Mavs coach Rick Carlisle. “If you really think about it, the guy’s head was over the rim, he blows out a candle, and he didn’t win. I think that’s just another interesting part of it.
“It doesn’t help the perception when you’re perceived to be more of a sideshow and a high-wire act than a true basketball player. And I think that’s something else that he’s realized.”
No one in the NBA has ever doubted Green’s athleticism, only his ability to channel it and make a commitment to working at his career. He developed a reputation for having a careless attitude, poor practice habits and an inability to remember plays.
“I used to just go to practice,” said Green, whose personality is as engaging as his raw talent. “Now I treat practice like work. I treat this the way other people do what they do for a living. I’m going to work.”
Of course, those changes in attitude took several changes in latitude as Green was first dealt from Boston to Minnesota as part of the package for Kevin Garnett in July 2007. But after just half a season, the Timberwolves sent him to Houston in exchange for Kirk Snyder and a couple of second-round draft picks.
Green was coming home giddy with anticipation. He still had warm memories of being an 8- and 9-year-old kid sitting with his father in front of the television, watching the Rockets win championships in 1994 and 1995.
“Oh, man,” he says breaking into a wide grin. “Those were great times. I remember when they swept Orlando, my dad got out the broom, and he was sweeping the whole house. That was Clutch City, man. Those were my Rockets. That was my team. Those guys, all of them, were my inspiration to make it to the NBA.
“Born in Houston, watching Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Mario Elie, it was the greatest. I thought when the trade came about, it was a dream come true. But my dream turned into a nightmare.”
Unhappy homecoming
Green didn’t last three weeks with the Rockets, getting onto the Toyota Center floor for just those four minutes in one game. Before Yao Ming went down with his season-ending foot injury, the Rockets were trying to clear salary space to offer more money to free agent Brent Barry. So they cut the hometown phenom and his potential. Those practice habits didn’t help.
At 22, Green was already at a crossroads.
“He had to learn that there’s a big difference between being AAU famous and NBA famous,” John Lucas said at the time Green signed with the Mavericks last July.
It was Lucas, reclaimer of lost basketball souls and careers, who worked through the spring with Green to help pick up the pieces.
Now it is Elie, one of those Clutch City heroes whom Green and his father cheered way back when, playing the daily role of tutor as a Mavs assistant coach.
“I think in ‘G’ you’ve got a guy who has a lot to prove, who’s been humbled by his NBA experience,” Elie said. “He’s a guy who was supposed to be with high expectations, a high flyer, a very exciting player.
“Now, he’s a player who has been traded quite a bit, released by the Rockets. I think that opened his eyes about the NBA. This is hard work whether you’re a lottery pick or a slam dunk champion. You have to go out there and be a professional, and I think he’s finally realizing that.
“What he’s finally learning is it’s not all about jumping ability, coming out of high school as an amazing athlete. No, no, no. There’s more to this NBA than that.
“It’s not all about athletics. You’ve got to know your assignments defensively, who you’re guarding. You’ve got to know where you’re going to get your shot and things like that. You’ve got to really think this game.”
Pursued by Carlisle
His continuing education brought Green to the Mavericks when he probably could have signed for more money elsewhere. The proximity to home helped. He also has relatives in Dallas. And Carlisle, in his first season succeeding Avery Johnson as head coach, pursued Green.
“He was very well-grounded from the beginning,” Carlisle said. “It’s not easy being on four rosters in less than a year, especially when there was so much hoopla surrounding you when you came into the draft.
“I was very active in talking to his agent about having him come here, because I felt we needed dynamic athleticism and energy for this team. I just felt it was a good risk, no matter what happened.”
From the outside, it might have seemed surprising that three teams had already given up on Green.
“Well, it’s hard to comment on that, because you don’t know what the situations were like,” Carlisle said. “But once it went boom-boom-boom, now he’s got a different perspective and has a much better respect for what it means to be on a team with a chance to be in a rotation.”
Including Tuesday night’s win at Charlotte, Green has started five games this season, three at shooting guard and two at small forward. Subbing for an injured Josh Howard last week, he scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds in Dallas in a loss to the Lakers. He spent some time guarding Kobe Bryant, then rattled the rafters and brought down the house with one devastating dunk over Lamar Odom.
Feeling comfortable
Green is averaging 15.4 minutes, 7.3 points and 3.0 rebounds on the season.
“Even counting my time in Boston, that (game against the Lakers) was the biggest game I ever played in my life,” he said. “I want to do that more. I want to feel that excitement. I know to do that, I have to bring that kind of energy into every game.
“I feel a lot more comfortable on this than on any of the previous teams. I know there are a lot of things I can do better. But it feels great to be playing again.”
Green is playing again because he’s being diligently professional, maybe for the first time in his NBA career. He comes early to Mavs practice and stays late for extra work on the court and in the film room. After the team returned from one road trip in the middle of the night, Green went straight to the practice gym at 2 a.m. and worked on his shooting.
“I think it is a part of growing up,” he said. “When things happen, sometimes you grow up fast. When I got drafted into the league, they expect you to grow up immediately, and it’s very hard in this atmosphere.
“I’ve had to mature faster than a normal 22-year-old kid. When I got waived, I had to grow up even more and get more mature. I wouldn’t say that I took everything for granted before. I’d say I didn’t maximize my opportunities. Now I’m always ready.”
Even at 22, even with legs that let you jump through the roof, you get only so many chances.
Gerald Green nodded.
“The years go by fast,” he said. “I don’t want to blow this opportunity.”