<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Willie Green spent his entire life trying to prove that he can play in the NBA. Then, Green tore up his left knee in summer 2005, and the 76ers guard had to prove it again. When the injury took place, just days before Green was to sign a five-year, $17 million contract extension, he was told he would miss the entire 2005-06 season, and that he might never return to his previous form. Green was determined to prove them wrong. He made it back for the final 10 games last season. No, he wasn't completely healthy. But he was healthy enough to prove -- to himself and the 76ers -- that he could once again play in the NBA. He was so convincing that the Sixers signed him to that same five-year, $17 million contract this summer. And he has been so convincing during the early stages of training camp that he has started in the backcourt with Allen Iverson during three games in Spain and Germany. Green and the Sixers will play their first exhibition game since returning from Europe tonight against the New York Knicks at the Wachovia Center. "In the midst of everything, that was a tough injury for me to go through," Green said. "It wasn't something [where] I was assured of what was going to happen at the end of it. Here we are, a year later, and I'm right back in the same position I was in a couple of years ago. I'm back with the team. The [contract] is done, and all of that stuff is out of the way. "So, now I'm focusing on basketball and the things I can do to help this team be successful." Green still has a lot to prove. In 2004-05, his last full season, Green rarely played with Iverson because former coach Jim O'Brien claimed opponents shot better than 50 percent when Green and Iverson were on the court together. The only times Green started were in the games Iverson missed because of injury, and Green averaged 18.0 points in those seven games. He averaged 7.7 points overall. Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks, who replaced O'Brien before last season, is giving Green the chance to prove he can play with Iverson. "Willie will help us a lot," Cheeks said. "I only coached him the last part of the season, but watching him play, we missed him a lot. He's going to give us another offensive player and another defensive player, because he's a defensive presence out on the floor." This is what Green was striving for during the offseason. He stayed in Philadelphia rather than return to his native Detroit so he could rehab under the Sixers training staff. He said he is completely healthy, that the knee doesn't bother him at all. Green said getting back for those final 10 games last season went a long way toward easing his mind. "Once I figured out that I can still do this, that it's going to hold up and the doctor did a great job, I got past that part," Green said. "It was just the physical part that I had to work on -- being able to jump again, being able to run, and stay in the game for a long period of time." </div> Link
Great to hear. If he gets some playing time he can be an effective bench player. He was a good spark off the bench in the seasons he played.
