Ex-LHS standout Green enjoys time in Europe

Colorado State guard Dorian Green celebrates as time expires in an 84-72 NCAA Tournament victory over Missouri on March 21, 2013, in Lexington, Ky. Green is a former Lawrence High standout.

Armed with knowledge and maturity that belied his birth certificate, former Lawrence High basketball and baseball superstar Dorian Green was offered a full-time Div. I assistant basketball coaching job at the age of 22.

That’s as rare as the shade of blue on the Hope Diamond, almost as rare as a golfer who spends more time talking about someone else’s round than his own four-hour display of great shots that amazingly took such unlucky bounces on nearly every hole.

Green was a prodigy in the coaching world, but not for long because he chose to leave it.

Niko Medved had been an assistant coach under Tim Miles, the head coach during Green’s first three years at Colorado State. Medved was so impressed by Green, who started 128 consecutive games at CSU and as a senior scored 28 points to lead the Rams to an NCAA Tournament victory against Missouri, that he wanted him on his staff immediately.

Miles advised Green to jump at the opportunity, pointing out that there are only 1,000 such jobs and 100,000 aspiring coaches in pursuit of them. Miles told Green it was “too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Medved called Green, “as smart and cerebral as any player I’ve ever coached.”

Green coached under Medved for a year, but the straight-A student wasn’t done learning, didn’t have playing basketball out of his system and wanted to do it professionally.

Two years into a professional basketball career that took him to Austria and then Germany, Green has no regrets about leaving coaching.

He is looking forward to a third season overseas and hasn’t a clue what country he next will call home.

“I could hear any day,” Green said. “I could hear tomorrow. It could be two weeks or it could be a month.”

Green, who said he has not looked into the NBA Developmental League, has an agent shopping his services.

“I want to keep traveling and keep seeing places,” said Green, who has helped LHS coach Mike Lewis at his summer camp the past couple of years.

As a professional rookie, Green lived in Gmunden, Austria, which he described as “a small town of 13,000 people tucked away in the mountains, next to a really huge lake. It was beautiful, really, really cool.”

His second season started late as he recovered from a stress fracture of the foot. He spent it in Nurmeberg, Germany.

“Loved Nuremberg,” Green said. “The city was awesome. It’s a big city with a lot to do and a lot of World War II history. It was a lot of fun.”

Green has heard horror stories from former teammates who said they were owed money by teams and never expect to see it. Two years into his career, Green said all of his checks have cleared, even though a few arrived late.

The teams pay for lodging and provide a car, which Green said enables him to spend money traveling through Europe and still leaves him with some money to take back home to Lawrence every spring.

In Austria, each team was allowed five foreign-born players, and no restrictions were placed on how many could play on the court at one time. In Germany, six foreigners were allowed per roster, but at least two Germans had to be on the court at all times, a source of frustration for more talented Americans who must watch less-talented players take their minutes.

“I played in front of some pretty nice crowds,” Green said. “Five, six thousand maybe. Somewhere in there.”

And then there was the night in Austria that Green’s team played against the dregs of the league.

“The team was so bad you could count the number of people in the stands,” Green said.

Could count them and did.

“We played in front of 37 people,” Green said. “And that counts our under-19 team, their coach and our general manager. It was the craziest experience.”

Like most people at the age of 25, Green isn’t sure what he wants to do with the rest of his life. His academic history, athletic accomplishments and personal skills suggest that whatever he does, he’ll never stop learning and figuring out how to get better at it.

“Maybe I’ll get into coaching, maybe I won’t,” Green said. “I learned a lot in one year of coaching. I also learned a lot in two years of playing. You can learn from every situation. What I’ve done the last three years can and will help me. I did enjoy coaching, and I would enjoy doing it again, but I don’t know exactly what I want to do.”

His desire to resume his basketball career was too great for him to ignore.

“Playing is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Green said. “I wanted to take advantage of it before I looked up one day and it was too late.”