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Gerald Green's Championship Ring

Friday, 20 November 2015: In a few days time the NLL season will kick off.  It’s an exciting time for all teams but especially for your defending NLL Champion LA Lakers.  Following tradition, opening night will be one of major jubilation as the first NLL Championship banner gets raised into the rafters.  And of course the players will be presented with their Championship rings.  For NLL legend, Manu Ginobili it will be his 3^rd ring ceremony but for most Lakers players it will be their 1^st.  And for Gerald Green this is a moment which he thought would never arrive.  It is rumoured that Green will wear his ring on his middle finger and no, not for ‘that’ reason.

The super athletic swingman has been one of the most polarising players the NLL has ever seen, but his journey to the NLL has not been an easy one.  In fact despite his insane athletic talents, there were times when he didn’t even think he would sustain a basketball career.  But even before his journeyman story began there was another story which happened in his childhood.

Childhood Accident: Green was in the sixth grade when a freak accident left him with half of his ring finger. Wearing his mother's class ring, the former NLL Slam Dunk champion tried to jam on a makeshift hoop attached to a doorway. The ring caught on a nail and his finger was ripped to the bone.

Amputation was the only option.

"All you saw was nothing but white bone, like a skeleton," Green said. "They said my tendons, all my ligaments were ripped out."

Kids can be cruel about such things, and the finger became a source of ridicule in school and at the courts. Green, a native of Houston, responded with fisticuffs and a long-standing complex.  Insecurities stuck with Green throughout a roller-coaster professional career, leading to his NLL rebirth as a top scorer and MVP candidate for the Lakers.

Insecurity and Fighting: "I got into a lot of fights over it," said the 29 year old. "It's just nothing to make fun of. I feel like I was kind of an outsider because of that. I used to always hide my hand. I don't really like talking about it.

"Sometimes I still hide it and not even realize that I'm doing it. Just out of habit. You've been doing something for so long, you're constantly hiding it. And then you're in the room by yourself, and you're realizing what you're doing."

Quitting basketball, however, never crossed his mind. After the pain became tolerable, Green returned to the court with a bandage-wrapped hand and "I was still making shots."

The shortened finger on his shooting hand made it impossible to palm a ball, though, and hindered a phase of his game that would eventually bring him fame: dunking. Green, who measures a four-foot vertical, said it's still an issue.

"If I could palm a ball I probably could have more dunks than I have in my career, but I still can get the job done," Green said.

Comeback: If the NLL awarded a Comeback from adversity Player of the Year, Green would be a lock for the award - an athlete impressive enough to be drafted out of high school, who was quickly cast as too immature for the NLL because of his inability to adjust.

Last season, the 6-8 forward, averaged 26.4 points in 33 minutes on 0.44fgs.  He led the NLL in 3fgs made at a handy clip of 0.37.  He also led all guards in dunks per game.  In the playoffs he was instrumental especially in Game 6 were he torched elite defender Kawhi Leonard for 39 points to help even the NLL Finals at 3-3.

Recently gm greenmig had the following to say, “Gerald is far from a volume scorer as he is often labelled by other gm’s – this guy is an elite player in the NLL – a guy teams have to game plan for or risk not doing so at their own peril.”

Ring Finger: As for Green it seems that he is finally moving forward from his childhood injury "It's something that I do regret in my life that happened to me, at the same time I can't sit there and dwell on that and I have to keep pushing forward and move on. I think that's the story of me period. When things just get bad you can't quit, you just have to keep fighting.  Besides, it’s OK, I got 4 good fingers and I will wear my Championship ring on my middle finger," he said with a wry grin.