Doc Rivers stresses positivity over Jeff Green setback – NBA Update
Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers isn’t bothered too much about Jeff Green’s long term absence from his side. Rivers instead is just happy that Green’s ailment was detected in time and the forward can have remedial surgery.
The Celtics will be left woefully sort of options on the court next season because of Green’s forced layoff. But, that is a secondary concern for Rivers who is focusing on the bigger picture. The coach said that it is lucky that
Green can be healthy again and the player should be positive about it rather than look at missed game time.
"That's the way I looked at it and that's basically what I conveyed to him," Rivers told reporters in Toronto before the Celtics took on the Raptors in their preseason opener. "'Don't look at this as a negative. This is an extreme
positive. You're gonna be OK, and that's good.'"
Concerns about Green’s heart condition first surfaced during a routine medical on the 9th of December. Further tests carried out by the team doctors confirmed that the 25 year old suffers from a condition called aortic
aneurysm.
Green is set to undergo surgery sometime in January and will have to sit out the complete NBA season as he recovers. He will be able to come back and continue playing professional basketball afterwards.
Rivers said Green’s health was the first and foremost concern for the Boston Celtics.
"We were hoping we were wrong obviously," Rivers said. "It's a tough one, obviously. Not more for the team, I think that's an easy way to look at it. I look at it more in a couple of ways, No. 1, how lucky Jeff is because the fact
that we found it and the fact that he can actually come back and play to me is the minor part. I couldn't care less about that."
Jeff joined the Boston Celtics last season in a trade that sent Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunders. He slowly settled into the team and was viewed as a valuable wing man for the coming season.
The Boston Celtics handed out a $9 million extension to Green just after the lockout ended and had banked on him to carry much of the workload. That contract will now be voided as Green goes home to recover but the damage done
to the Celtics could be more lasting.
The team has a rapidly aging core in the Big Thee of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Starting centre Jermaine O’Neal is not getting any younger either and Boston simply can’t make up the numbers with only a hand full
of players under contract.
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