Veteran guard Gerald Green has retired from the NBA as a player and will be joining the Rockets as a player development coach, the team announced (Twitter link).
Green, who played 12 seasons in the NBA, worked out for the Rockets last month, but wasn’t picked up by the rebuilding team. He joined the Rockets for the 2020/21 preseason, but was waived before the season started due to cap constraints. He suffered a broken foot in October of 2019 and missed the entire 2019/20 season because of the injury. The last time he played in regular season games was in 2018/19, when he was a rotation player for the Rockets.
The 18th pick of the 2005 draft, Green played in 658 NBA games during his 12 seasons, holding career averages of 9.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.9 assists in 19.8 minutes per game, with a shooting slash line of .417/.361/.818.
Arguably his best individual season came in 2013/14 with Phoenix, when he played all 82 games (48 starts) and averaged 15.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 28.4 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .445/.400/.848.
The Houston native played for eight teams over the course of his career: the Celtics, Timberwolves, Mavericks, Nets, Pacers, Suns, Heat, and Rockets. He had two separate stints with both the Celtics and Rockets.
An amazing athlete, Green was one of the best dunkers the NBA has ever seen. He was the champion of the 2007 Slam Dunk Contest and runner-up in 2008. He also developed into a strong, albeit streaky, three-point shooter in the latter portion of his career, playing important minutes in Houston’s run to the Western Conference Finals in 2017/18.
Nice, Congrats to him
I’m glad they found a spot for him in the organization. He loves Houston.
I remember when he slid in the draft and the Celtics got him….I was so excited, then I realized why he slid
Two blowouts in the Rockets first two games, except they weren’t on the receiving end against OKC. It was like night and day, huge improvement after the opener.
Top 10 guard of all time? I say yes
As a 10th man, maybe. Is there an award for last rotation player off the bench?
Uh what
I also say yes…but then I complete the comment. “Yes…that is the dumbest question of all time.”
If you go back to the first game against the Wolves when they emptied the benches, the Rockets have outscored their opponents 152-102 since then. Not too shabby.
and it was against the wolves and gleague rotation thunder.
Minnesota’s not that bad, they’ve won 10 of their last 17 games dating back to last season. They could even make the playoffs.
They really arent, they always have great players just a crap atmosphere. Towns had a lot going on last year, DLo had no direction, Okogie, Beasley are decent. Culver and Juancho were sort of underatted tho gone now. Layman is ok. Edwards is gonna be a beast.
i did’t call them the iowa wolves.
I remember the Wolves being terrible, and still not giving Gerald Green any run. He was a throw in from BOS for Kevin Garnett.