A different perspective on adversity
CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers are down 2-0 against the defending-champion Warriors in an NBA Finals few outside their own circle give them anything resembling a chance.
Cleveland forward Jeff Green has faced far tougher odds.
In January 2012, Green, as a member of the Celtics, underwent open-heart surgery after a routine basketball physical uncovered an aortic aneurysm. Forget his basketball career. His life was at stake. When he got the news in December 2011, he sat in stunned silence.
“I didn’t believe it,” the 6-foot9, 31-year-old Green said. “I mean, how would you react if somebody told you that you have to quit doing what you love and you have to have a one and only surgery [that] has to be a heart surgery that deals with life or death? It’s hard to put into words what was going through my head.”
But after hearing the news, one thought above all ran through Green’s brain.
“My first thought was: Am I going to live? That was the first thing. I didn’t care too much about basketball at that point,” said Green, averaging 8.1 points in this postseason.
He underwent surgery on Jan. 9, 2012. Doctors opened him up, stopped his heart, repaired the aneurysm and sewed him back up, leaving a long scar.
And it left a man who knows how fortunate he is to be alive. Green, a teammate in Seattle of Kevin Durant, also gained as much gratitude and optimism as anyone who will walk into Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday for Game 3.
“First and foremost, I’m doing what I love,” said Green, who sat out the entire lockout-truncated 2011-1 2 season. “We’re getting paid a lot of money to play the game of basketball and you lose sight of the everyday things. There are a lot of things people take for granted, especially in our position when everything comes easy. A lot of fame, you’re always talked about. You get a lot of accolades for just playing basketball. You can go day-today without appreciating certain things.
“You take a lot of things for granted. You put a lot of things to the side and you procrastinate a lot. So it really makes you get your priorities back in order and I think that was something I had to do.”
But before he got his priorities in a row, Green asked “Why?” a lot. There was no anger, no selfpity — but there was confusion. He believes everything has a purpose, but he couldn’t immediately see what was behind his tale.
“God has his plans and he had a plan for me to go through that, to make me understand, not take life for granted and to appreciate life day-to-day,” he said.
His story has helped others gain perspective. Teammate J.R. Smith, who has been at the center of his share of controversies, learned perspective when his daughter was born five months premature and started l i fe in intensive care units. So Green’s saga impacts.
“It gives me a totally different perspective. I went through a situation with my daughter. And then for somebody like him to go through open-heart surgery?” Smith said. “This is your job and you take pride in the effort of what you do but it’s nothing like risking your life. Stuff like that is not to be played with. We’ve got families and he just had another beautiful little girl. We have a lot of people that are depending on us to survive, not just to play basketball.”