Another former Celtic returns to Boston on Wednesday, but this homecoming should lack much of the pomp and circumstance of previous ones.
Jeff Green — not to mention Courtney Lee and Tony Allen — will be back at TD Garden when their current team, the Memphis Grizzlies, visits Wednesday. The recent returns of departed Celtics like Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Doc Rivers and Paul Pierce included plenty of emotion and even a few tears, but Green doesn’t expect the same level of reception.
He’s not even banking on a tribute video featuring his highlights in green.
“It would be nice, but I don’t expect it,” Green said, according to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn. “The guys who got them won championships.”
The trade that brought Green to Boston in 2011 remains one of the more controversial moves in team history among fans. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge dealt beloved big man Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a package headlined by Green, believing the Celtics needed Green’s dynamism for an 18th championship run.
The Celtics never got back to the NBA Finals, however. They were bounced in the second round by the Miami Heat that spring and Green missed the ensuing season with a heart ailment.
Green averaged 14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game over four seasons in Boston. He was traded in January in a three-way deal that brought Tayshaun Prince, Austin Rivers and a future first-round draft pick to the Celtics — only the latter of which is still under Boston’s control.
Thumbnail photo via Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports Images
