He keeps playing like he is tonight against the Lakers....and he will be a full MLE player at the end of the year. He is so much faster than any other SF or SG on the floor, he is just blowing by people. DD
He's a headcase who has showed poor work ethic. maybe he has stepped it up in Dallas. I really don't know the real answer to that. however, I would bet damn near anything, that he goes back to his old ways at some point (especially if he gets a nice contract).
Never said that did I? I just don't believe in him like you do. His track record tells me not to. That doesn't mean he can't prove me wrong. Your mancrushes are hilarious dude.
King, I like to fill out the roster with young up and coming players, guys that can learn from our veterans and may one day take their place. Some players need more time to get NBA ready, but if you don't have some developing you end up having to get others rejects, and that rarely ends well. DD
Fair. However, Green was here. They had a nice long look at him and let him go. Morey knows what he's doing. I would love to see young talent on thsi team (hence why I don't want to trade Brooks at all) , but I don't like guys like Green. You can never trust them.
Morey is awesome. But Rudy Gay went to another team during Morey's tenure. Kelenna Azubuike went to another team under Morey's tenure.Its looking like another athletic "non trustworthy" wing player is coming into his own somewhere else. Not saying you're right or wrong about that. I'm just saying I can always trust 13 points and 11 boards from a role player. Maybe Carl Herrera was right about the adoration of the big beefy players. Rick Carlisle is well respected but isnt exactly a player's coach. Unless he's trying to win coolness points from the fanbase playing Green, would have to think he actually sees something there.
So basically Green stood around and sulked whenever the ball wasn't in his hands. Talked crap to Dampier who was the only person on the team playing worth a damn. WHAT A TEAMMATE!
Gerald Green should be playing a LOT more in Dallas.....he is the only guy who attacks the rim. He should be over Stackhouse, and Wright..... DD
I'm sure he'll get a lot more playing time in the near future as the wheels seem to be flying off of the Mavs wagon.
Morey, Please bring him back next year....a must read for any Green fan. Green is finally getting it in Dallas 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 hurtling down a mountainside road with two wheels dangling over the edge. 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 different NBA rosters, handed around from Boston to Minnesota to Houston and now Dallas like an old toaster on the flea market circuit. It was being released by his hometown Rockets after just 16 days and four minutes of playing time that 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 had academic problems that 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. Three months later, Green was a member of the Boston Celtics (18th overall pick), having chosen to bypass his previous 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 that was 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 Mavericks head 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. So 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 not being able 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 attitudes took several changes in latitudes 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 and was giddy with anticipation. He still had his warm memories of being an eight- and nine-year-old kid sitting in front of the television with his father watching the Rockets win back-to-back 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.” Green didn’t last three weeks with the Rockets, getting onto the Toyota Center floor for just one game, four minutes. 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. And 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 on way back then, 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. “When 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 gonna get your shot and things like that. You’ve got to really think this game.” 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,” said Carlisle. “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.” Going into Tuesday night’s game at Charlotte, Green had started four games this season, twice at shooting guard and twice at small forward. Subbing for an injured Josh Howard last week, Green and 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. Green is averaging 15.6 minutes, 7.6 points and 3.3 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 and 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 only get so many chances. Gerald Green nodded his head. “The years go by fast,” he said. “I don’t want to blow this opportunity.” fran.blinebury@chron.com DD
I'm not sold on Green yet but we could have had a pretty athletic and interesting 2nd unit: Brooks Green Artest Landry ...
i don't know exactly what green is doing as i haven't seen him in any games this season, but i checked his stats after each game and so far he hasn't been very consistent. on the other hand i really liked what von wafer is doing in the last 3 games. so from my point of view, green still has to prove that he deserves a place on our roster...
I know DD and some other may not agree with me But I would take Wafer over Green at this stage of their careers. Wafer understands that he has to find his spots and play within the system. Green on all the teams I have seen him on always looks to score no matter who he is in the game with whether the shot is good or bad.
Dakota: I don't care one way or another about the issue, but if anything, doesn't that article essentially invalidate the crux of your premise that we made a mistake in dropping Green? He says himself that that rude awakening was what pushed him to change himself.
