Hyattsville's Green Hopes to Return to the Celtics

Sometimes less is better.

That appears to be the case for pro basketball player Jeff Green, who grew up in Hyattsville and was a star on the School basketball team that won a Class 4A state title in 2004.

Green, who averaged 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks as a senior at Northwestern, was a starter in his first three seasons in the National Basketball Association. The former Georgetown star played for Seattle as a rookie in 2007-08 and then joined Oklahoma City prior to the next season.

During his career with Oklahoma City, the 6-foot-9 forward played in 207 regular-season games and he started every one of them. He averaged 15.2 points per game in 49 contests with Oklahoma City this past season before he was picked up by the Boston Celtics in a trade with Oklahoma City in February.

Green became a key reserve with Boston and his average fell to 9.8 points per game in 26 games, with two starts, with the Celtics. He averaged 7.3 points per game in the playoffs this spring with Boston. Despite his reduced role, Green said he would like to stay with the Celtics.

A restricted free agent this summer, the Hyattsville native told the Boston Globe earlier this month: "This is a great place. I've just got to get better for myself personally. This being my fourth year, making it to the second round, this is a great experience for myself, just going through it. This is going to help me in the long run."

Perhaps Green wants to keep the Georgetown-Boston angle in place. Hall of Fame coach John Thompson, the father of John Thompson III, who coached Green with the Hoyas, played with the Celtics before he began his coaching career.

Bob Ryan, a long-time journalist in Boston, said in an interview on WTEM 980, based in Rockville: "Jeff Green is not the player I thought he would be."

But tell that to fans of Northwestern and Georgetown, who have great memories of his time with those schools. He led Northwestern to a record of 17-9 as a senior and then played three years for the Hoyas before turning pro.

Doc Rivers, the head coach of the Celtics, was asked by Boston station WEEI on Monday, May 16 if he would make the trade if he had to do it all over again.

"Well, I would wait until after the year is over. I'll put it that way. I do think Jeff Green has a chance to be a starter for us in the future and a [heck] of a basketball player," Rivers said in the interview.

Green helped Georgetown to the Big East title and a trip to the Final Four in 2007.

His mother, Felicia, attended all of his home games during his Georgetown career and students there would greet her with "Jeff Green's mom" at games at what is now the Verizon Center in downtown Washington.

Terri Dendy, the athletic director at Northwestern, told Patch that she was not at the school when Green played for the Wildcats. And she added his former high school coach is no longer at Northwestern either.