Al Green

Al Green
Position	Guard
Nickname	The Mean Machine Mean Al
Height	189 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	78 kg (172 lb)
Nationality	United States /  Australia
Born	The Bronx, New York, United States
Junior Association	Arizona Western JC North Carolina State University Louisiana State University[1]
Debut	1981
Final Game	1993
Previous Clubs	West Adelaide Bearcats (1981-1984) Adelaide 36ers (1985-1990) Newcastle Falcons (1991-1993)
Career Highlights	NBL Most Valuable Player 1982 All NBL First Team 1981, 1985 NBL Championship with West Adelaide (1982) and Adelaide 36ers (1986)

Al Green (born 1955-1956 in The Bronx, New York) is a retired naturalised Australian professional basketball player originally from the United States who played his career in the Australian National Basketball League from 1981 until his retirement in at the end of 1993. Green obtained Australian citizenship in 1985.

School/College career

Born and bred in the South Bronx, Al Green and grew up playing basketball with future NBA All-Star player Bernard King. He attended Maine Central HS following which he attended Arizona Western Junior College. He then switched schools and went to North Carolina State University where he was a member of the NC State Wolfpack before again moving one last time to Louisiana State University to play for the LSU Tigers. During his college career for NC State and LSU Green would come up against the likes of future NBA Hall of Fame players Moses Malone and Magic Johnson.

1979 NFL Draft

While attending Louisiana State, Al Green was selected as draft pick #269 in the 1979 NFL Draft as a Defensive Back by the San Diego Chargers, despite never having played organised football. The choice was made primarily on Green's speed and jumping ability. Green and his agent spoke to the Chargers but despite the money he was being offered by the Chargers he decided that he wanted to continue playing basketball.

Professional career

Green, a 6'2" (189 cm) Guard, moved to Australia in the early 1980s and settled in Adelaide where he lives to this day (2012). He signed to play for the West Adelaide Bearcats in the NBL from the 1981 season and made an immediate impact. In his first season he helped the Bearcats to a third place finish and was selected to his first All NBL First Team.

The 1982 NBL season saw Green continue with the Bearcats who made the NBL Grand Final against the Geelong Supercats. West Adelaide would won their only NBL championship winning 80-74 at the Newcastle Basketball Stadium. Green had a supreme season in his second year in Australia and was voted the NBL's Most Valuable Player in 1982 but controversially was left out of the All NBL First team. It was the first of so far three times that the league MVP has not been selected in the All First team (Owen Wells in 1983 and Joe Hurst in 1988 being the others).

Green had established himself as the premier guard in the NBL and in 1984 set scoring records in the league that still stand. He scored a league record 71 points in a game against the Frankston Bears shooting 26 from 44. He also scored 60 points and 59 points in other games through the 1984 season on his way to a league leading 39.5 points per game in 21 games played despite the Bearcats finishing 11-13 for the year. His 39.5 points per game in 1984 is the second highest average ever in an NBL season, beaten only by Andrew Gaze of the Melbourne Tigers in 1987 who averaged 44.1 points.

In 1985 West Adelaide pulled out of the NBL and some players from the Bearcats, including Al Green and former Aussie Boomer Ray Wood, joined the Adelaide 36ers as Adelaide's only team in the NBL. The 36ers, coached by the Bearcats 1984 coach Ken Cole, included players such as Olympians Darryl "The Iceman" Pearce and team captain Peter "Pa" Ali as well as import players in 6'9" (206 cm) centre Bill Jones and 6'7" (201 cm) rebounding sensation Mark Davis, finished the regular season second on the ladder and after a record 151-103 win over Newcastle in the Semi-Final were into the NBL Grand Final where they faced the Brisbane Bullets on the Bullets home court. Unfortunately for Adelaide, Al Green was held to 15 points and fouled out of the game as the Bullets won 120-95. As he was fouled out, Green, who had always been an emotional player, reacted to a taunt from Bullets player Larry Sengstock and threw the ball at Sengstock's head, giving away a tech foul in the process.^[2] Green's form in playing point guard for the 36ers in 1985 saw him selected to his second All NBL First team.

Green and the 36ers continued to dominate the NBL in 1986, going 15-0 at home at the Apollo Stadium and finishing the season with a 24-2 record. The team, known as "The Invincibles" again faced Brisbane this time in a best of three Grand Final series. After splitting the first two games, Adelaide won their first and Al Green won his last NBL championship with a 113-91 win at home. Green averaged 15 points over the three game series. His scoring prowess seen from 1981-1984 was slowed by Ken Cole making him the 36ers Point guard where he changed his game slightly and actually led the team in assists per game rather than just in points.

Al Green continued to play for the 36ers until the end of the 1990 NBL season. In that time the team never made another Grand Final but finished the 1987 and 1988 regular seasons in first place. Following the 1990 season, and after 164 games for the 36ers, Al Green wasn't re-signed by the club and he found a new home with the Newcastle Falcons. He would play three seasons with the Falcons (1991–1993) before retiring from the NBL at the age of 36.

Athletics

Al Green wasn't only a professional basketball player. He was also a professional runner who won Adelaide's famous Bay Sheffied sprint race held over 120 metres in both 1983 and 1984. After he became a naturalised Australian in 1985 Green announced his retirement from professional running with the intention of running for Australia at the 1986 Commonwealth Games although he again decided his true home was on the basketball court and he went on to help the 36ers to their 1986 NBL Championship instead of pursuing a place on the Australian Team for Edinburgh.

Current

Al Green is currently the coach of the Woodville Warriors senior mens team in the Central Australian Basketball League, as well as the current coach of the Westminster School open A's and B's.

Honour roll

References

External links

This biographical article relating to an Australian basketball figure is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e