The owner of the New Orleans Pelicans has recommended that the head coach’s salary this month not be paid due to misunderstandings with two players

The owner of the New Orleans Pelicans has recommended that the head coach’s salary this month not be paid due to misunderstandings with two players.

The memories come back every time Willie Green boards a plane and descends into Philadelphia.

Larry’s Steaks close to St. Joe’s or his West Philly barber come to mind. Or think of his lengthy roster of significant coaches and teammates, which includes Billy King and Tony Dileo in addition to Aaron McKie and Eric Snow.

It just makes me happy, Green told The Inquirer recently.

As head coach, Green now leads the New Orleans Pelicans, who need to defeat the Sacramento Kings on Friday without injured star Zion Williamson in order to salvage their season and advance to the first round of the Western Conference playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Green led that squad for three seasons, during which time he was widely praised for his 42-year-old hops and his viral 2022 in-game “You’ve got to freakin’ fight!” motivating speech.

But Green laid his NBA roots with the 76ers, growing from a second-round draft pick in 2003 to a well-liked role player in seven seasons and into a guy who, to many around him back then, is hardly surprising to have made a successful career out of coaching.

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Green still attributes his Sixers career with helping him develop his capacity to interact with individuals throughout an organization, to combine joy and professionalism at the highest level of the sport, and to capture the spirit of Philly more than 20 years after he first arrived in our city.

“I feel like if you can play on the East Coast, you can play anywhere,” Green said to The Inquirer last month after a Pelicans practice at Temple. “In athletics and in life, it adds yet another level of mental toughness that is essential. …

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I like the work ethic Philly instills in you. You had to put in a lot of effort in this city or they would boo you off the floor.

Living in Philadelphia
Asked about his early days here, Green laughs. He grew up in Detroit and knew only that city until he became a star at the University of Detroit Mercy. Under former Sixers coach Randy Ayers, he had second thoughts about his NBA suitability during his first training camp. But McKie was “blown away” by the young shooting guard’s competitiveness, scoring variety, and fluidity right away.

“Day 1, when we got in the gym, I realized how good he was,” McKie recently told The Inquirer over the phone. Willie was not an athlete of stature 6–10. At most 6-4, he entered the gym and began to play over the rim.

After a fourth quarter timeout, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Elton Brand, and Willie Green take the floor.
After a fourth-quarter break, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Elton Brand, and Willie Green take the floor.
Green, meanwhile, looked to seasoned teammates like McKie for direction. He never returned the sports coat that he had borrowed from Snow. That was his first check written. He saw personally the unrelenting playing style of Allen Iverson. He spent his nights on the road at restaurants or movie theaters, where they all got into lengthy discussions about the diet and rest needed to build the body for a long career.

That explains why Green claims to have “learned how to be an adult here in Philadelphia.” But veteran chief sports trainer Kevin Johnson refused to label Green a rookie because of the way he conducted himself every day—his credo was “keep it humble.”

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“And I wouldn’t let anybody else call him rookie,” Johnson recently told The Inquirer. “What then are we going to call him?” the team asked. My comment, “I call him an inexperienced, first-year player,” stuck.