What he did: Ask 10 people on the street who is the University of Georgia's career-leading scorer in basketball and all of them will tell you Dominique Wilkins. They would all be wrong. While Wilkins put in 1,688 points during his three-year career in Athens, Green is actually the only UGA player ever to surpass 2,000 points, landing at 2,111. The point guard also holds the school record for assists with 466 and along with Pete Maravich and Allan Houston (Tennessee) is one of three players in the SEC to collect more than 2,000 points and 400 assists.
The signing of Green in 1988 was one of the biggest ever for the Bulldogs and coach Hugh Durham, who won 298 games of his 634 games at Georgia. Coming out of Moss Point, Miss., he was a McDonald’s All-American. The decision for Green was narrowed between Georgia Tech and the Bulldogs and the difference was Georgia assistant coach Tevester Anderson, who had gone to the same Mississippi Junior College that Green’s father had attended.
Green, extremely confident in his abilities and not bashful with the media, made an impression quickly and averaged 15.5 points during his freshman season. Then came the season Georgia basketball fans will never forget when they won what still is their only regular season (1989-90) SEC title, going 13-5 in the conference and 9-0 at home, finishing one game ahead of Alabama and LSU. Interestingly, Green missed what was perhaps the biggest game of the season when the Bulldogs won at LSU on Feb. 25 in overtime against a team that had Chris Jackson and 7-footers Shaquille O’Neal and Stanley Roberts. Green had to have surgery the day before to remove a boil from his hip but he came back and in the regular-season finale against Auburn and scored 30 points, including 11 points during a game-changing 16-0 run by the Bulldogs that fueled the 94-79 win. That team, which came back and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the conference title Saturday in Athens, was led by Green and power forward Alec Kessler, who tragically died of a sudden heart attack in 2007. Green finished his college career strong, averaging 20.6 and 19.4 points over his last two seasons, making the All-SEC team his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
But he made a mistake of not attending the NBA predraft camp and wasn’t taken in the 1992 draft until the 12th pick in the second round by the Chicago Bulls and hours later was traded to Orlando. Green spent five seasons in the NBA, mainly as a backup and also played in the Continental Basketball League as well as Venezuela, Turkey and Poland. He then had success coaching in 2003 when he joined the Southern Crescent Lightning of the World Basketball Association; being named the league’s Coach of the Year Award after his team won the league title. He also coached for Chattanooga Steamers in the American Basketball Association before moving to television and working as a college basketball analyst for ESPN.
Where he lives: Green, 44, lives in Fayetteville and has been married to Marie for 11 years. They have no children.
What he does now: He is the executive director and head basketball coach at a prep school in College Park called the American Basketball Institute.
On the American Basketball Institute: "We help kids that didn't make the SAT or ACT scores get to the next level and get a full scholarship. We also take kids that need to get bigger and faster. It's a better alternative than junior college because if it works out they still have four years of eligibility.''
On the SEC Championship team: "We didn't take any nights off and no shortcuts. We had multiple players that produced like Rod Cole, Lem Hoard and Shaun Golden. We were a very close-knit team.''
On their competition in the conference that season: "Let's see, Alabama had Robert Horry and Keith Askins. LSU had Jackson, O'Neal and Roberts. Florida had Dwayne Schintzius. Kentucky had Derrick Miller, Ole Miss had Gerald Glass and Tennessee had Allan Houston. It seemed like every team had two or three NBA players. You had to come with a workmanlike mentally or you would be embarrassed.''
On being the career scoring leader in school history: "It's an honor. Dominique was the greatest by far under Coach Durham but Coach Anderson once told me, 'You can't pick or chose how others will remember you. Just hope they do.' My high school coach used to tell me 'To to hell with being liked, you want to be respected.' You can't mention UGA basketball without mentioning Litterial. When you get older, you look back and it really makes you proud. I had a lot of great teammates and a lot of help from the coaches.''
On playing in the NBA: "I never thought that a Moss Point kid would get to the highest level of basketball. I made a mistake when I declined to go to predraft camp. I didn't want to get an incomplete in my classes and (NBA chief scout) Marty Blake said I was going to cost myself. I was young and dumb and it was one of the deepest drafts ever. I thought I was going to get a chance to play with Michael (Jordan) but they traded me and I played with Shaq. I was a blue-collar guy in the league and it is bumpy road when you are a backup player in the NBA. The cards were just not in my favor.''
On the death of his teammate Kessler: Alex was a tough one for me. He lived next door to me at McWhorter Hall for two years. We had our own personal relationship. He was genuine in and out. When I got to the NBA he played for Miami and we faced four or five times a year so we would go out to lunch and spend time together. We both wore Georgia proud on our shirts. It was a special bond. When I got news that Alex had passed, it rocked me. It was the first teammate I had lost and there are not too many days that go by that I don't think of him. My heart is still broken.''
On playing for Durham: "He was tough on me. But he was really inspirational in my maturation process. He taught me some sound basketball principals. He wasn't a coach that was going to put his arms around you. He was a tough-nosed guy and I think he liked the underdog players, those guys he had to develop a lot.''
On interviewing for an assistant's job at Georgia: "There was a position open and I thought maybe I could go back. … I am hoping one day I can get back to UGA and help make Georgia basketball relevant every year.''
On returning for the 25th anniversary: "I am so impressed with how everything looks at Stegeman (Coliseum). I remember when we played it always smelled like cow manure because of the barn out back. It is really first class now. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone. It doesn't seem that it has been 25 years. We are not as close as we should be though as everyone is doing their own thing. One thing I think we are all proud of is that what we did had never been done before and hasn't been done since. A lot of teams can get hot and win a tournament. But we were undefeated in our building and we won a league that had so much talent. It says a lot about that team.''
About the Author
