Inside one of the wildest 48 hours of new Houston Rockets player Gerald Green’s life

http://celticswire.usatoday.com/2017/12/29/gerald-green-houston-rockets-james-harden-mike-dantoni-brad-stevens/




Inside one of the wildest 48 hours of new Houston Rockets player Gerald Green’s life










By: Jared Weiss | 5 hours ago 





In life there are coincidences, then there’s serendipity.


Gerald Green was rushing to the airport Wednesday after word came in that his six-year-old son Jeremiah with sick with an apparent allergic reaction. Gerald bolted to catch his flight, only having time to grab a backpack full of some of his essentials.


He hopped on the next flight to Jeremiah’s hometown of Boston, where Green played for the Celtics last year. A few hours later he landed at Logan and pulled his phone out while the plane was taxiing on the tarmac. He just needed an update on Jeremiah, needing to know he was fine.


Instead, it was another message. The Houston Rockets needed him. His return to the NBA was here.


“As soon as I landed, that’s when I got the call,” Green said Thursday before his Rockets debut. “I was on the way to my son and I was thinking, ‘Maybe,’ but then I was like, ‘Wow.’”



Green had a workout scheduled for the following morning and signed with the Rockets soon after. The same day, Jeremiah was deemed okay by the doctors and is expected to be fine.


“I think I’ve never been so high and so low in the same day ever.” Green said. “He’s going to be better. He’s good. He’s in Boston. He’s here. He’s bummed that he can’t come to the game today.”


His son will have to wait just a little bit longer to see dad play in person. The irony is that Green had been waiting all fall in Houston for something in the NBA to come through. It wasn’t until the Rockets and Green were both in Boston until the call finally came through. It was something he had been waiting for since he woke up to another shocking call on October 14.


He had been in training camp with the Milwaukee Bucks and had even been told just before the season started that he made the team, beating out vets James Young, Kendall Marshall, Brandon Rush and Joel Anthony. Then the Miami Heat waived DeAndre Liggins, Milwaukee won the claim and Green got the bad news that he was being replaced.


“They told me I made the team right after the last preseason game and then I woke up the next day and they said they wanted to go in another direction.”


He returned to his hometown Houston, where he spent his time with family and clearing his head. Green realized that at 31 and a game built on his bounce, this may have been his last shot in the NBA.


“That was a tough moment for me because I thought I had made the team but I didn’t. I had to take some time for myself,” Green said. “I don’t want to dwell on that because this is a situation where I want to be in anyway.”


Now Green is playing for his hometown team and his connection to Houston was never more apparent than when he became a sensation for his efforts to rescue stranded neighbors during Hurricane Harvey. Green drove through Houston in a giant truck, posting videos on his Instagram calling on anyone with a boat to come out and help with the rescue. Looking back on it, Green just felt like he had to take action to help those truly in need.


“I didn’t really have a role. I just felt like I just needed to really step up and do something. When you see the neighborhood that you grew up in underwater, you can either sit there and look like everybody else or you can get up and go try to help somebody that needs to be helped. So that’s just the role I wanted to take at that point.”


So the karma is coming back now, with Houston rewarding him for his bravery and commitment to being a part of a team.


“Ah, man. Shoot, this Houston. I already know how I feel about Houston. Especially with everything that Houston’s been through this summer, for me to just be a part of this team and how they’re playing right now, it’s like this definitely was my Christmas gift.”


But it was a surprise he had to wait so long for a gift. He was valued by the Celtics last season not only as a clubhouse leader, but as a fill-in swing in the Bulls series. Brad Stevens threw Green into the starting lineup after they blew the first two games at home and Boston controlled the series the rest of the way. Whether it was Green’s remarkable scoring outbursts or ability to allow for a more athletic defensive scheme, he provided whatever Stevens needed.


“He’s a guy who can score the ball, he’s a guy that’s been doing it for a long time, he was fun to have around, and he’s a big reason we advanced out of the first round,” Stevens said. “Him starting in the Bulls series and spreading the floor, and being able to guard up a spot, he was matched up with Mirotic, who we can recognize is no easy task. Mirotic is a good player. So Gerald is a really accomplished guy, it makes a lot of sense, he fits perfect for how they play. I wish they would have waited until tomorrow.”


Green was brought in to fill in for injured wing Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who will be out for the next few weeks. Green’s deal will be guaranteed until January 7, giving him just that amount of time to prove whether he’s worth keeping for the season. However, Green could still sign a pair of 10-day contracts if he is waived and even sign back on for the season again after that. For now, he is just there to fill Trevor Ariza’s shoes, literally and figuratively.


“We’re just really shorthanded on the wings and with Luc being down the next couple weeks, he can make sure we don’t give Trevor [Ariza] too many minutes,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “And obviously, he’s played at a good level in the NBA before and then we’ll go from there. Probably not game ready today, I don’t really think. But he says he’s not bad. He’s got a lot of talent, he’s very athletic, so we’ll see where it goes.”


So why figuratively? When Green rushed to Boston, he didn’t pack any basketball gear. So when he arrived with the Rockets at the Garden Thursday evening, Ariza lent him a pair of sneakers to play in.


“I don’t have any bags or nothing,” Green said. “I went straight from waking up to hearing my son was [sick] and I was like, ‘Okay, let me get my stuff, let me get my backpack. That’s it.’ I don’t got nothing. I had to borrow basketball shoes and everything.  These are Trevor Ariza’s. So if I can shoot like him tonight, that would be good.”


Unfortunately for Green, he shot 0-for-3 in 11 minutes of play, but was welcomed to a big cheer from the Garden crowd, many of whom had been advocating for the Celtics to use their currently open roster spot to sign Green. While that won’t happen for now, Green is aware that his two-week stint with Houston will still serve as an audition for the rest of the league. It’s all a challenge to hang on by a thread, but it’s the reality of the most competitive basketball league in the world.


“It’s been kind of tough,” Green said. “But tough people last.”




bob




.

Wonderful guy. I wish him well. Just not last night. He absolutely turned around the Bulls series , with a little help from the Rondo injury.