Coming out of high school, Gerald Green was supposed to be the 2nd coming of NBA superstar Tracy McGrady.
He averaged an unbelievable 33 points, 12 boards, 7 assists, and 3 blocks per game as a senior at Gulf Shores Academy in Houston and was the high scorer at the 2005 McDonald’s All American Game, outshining future NBA and NCAA stars like Andrew Bynum, Monta Ellis, and Mario Chalmers.
He was selected by the Boston Celtics with the 18th pick in the 2005 NBA Draft but his NBA career has been a tad disappointing to say the least up until this point.
One thing he has always been known for was that he could literally “jump out of the gym”, winning the ’05 McDonald’s HS Dunk Contest, the 2007 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and finishing runner up in the 2008 event, losing to Dwight Howard.
But the 6’8, super athletic forward struggled with his jump-shot and found himself bouncing around between the D-League, overseas, and 7 different NBA teams before finding his niche with the surprising Phoenix Suns this season.
Green has become much more than just a highlight reel dunker, regularly getting his head above the rim, as he has improved his jumper, shooting .384% from behind the arc and averaging a career high 13.4 ppg this season.
Wednesday night, Green calmly sank the game winning jumper with 3.9 seconds remaining, helping the Suns beat the Timberwolves 103-102.
What is really impressive is just how high Green got on the shot as he made over Corey Brewer and Nikola Pekovic, making them look like they were stuck in mud as his knees were almost at their head level.
Any doubt that Gerald Green has the most hops in the NBA?
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
