Then I read this and it explained it perfectly. Proud of Green for overcoming this and still becoming such a good player for us.
*this isn't a new article but if you haven't read this before, its a good read.
It was a force of habit for Gerald Green, a reflex that, on June 28, 2005, was no doubt triggered by the spotlight of the NBA draft.
Green, walking to the podium of as the 18th overall pick, tucked his right hand in his pants. He was hiding an insecurity.
"David Stern told me, 'take your hand out of your pocket,'" Green recalled. "I said, 'Oops, I'm sorry.'"
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 2007 NBA 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 NBA rebirth as a top scorer for the Nets.
"I got into a lot of fights over it," said the 26 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 still do. 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 (although he won the '07 title and finished runner-up in 2008).
"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.
If the NBA awarded a Comeback 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 NBA because of his inability to adjust. He was forced to play two seasons overseas, only to return triumphantly in the final two months of this lockout-condensed campaign.
Green, a 6-8 forward, is averaging 13.1 points since getting called up from the D-League on a 10-day contract on Feb. 27. He is scoring 15 points per game over the last 32.
He's also more comfortable with himself and his finger, a product of growing up. When Deron Williams - the locker-room king of busting chops - made a crack about Green's finger, it was embraced with a response much different from his youth.
"It moves like a Rottweiler tail," Green said while shaking his finger.
"It's something that you do regret in my life that happened to me," he later said. "At the same time I can't sit there and dwell on that and 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."
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baske ... -1.1065349
Dribbling the ball and running without basically using your middle finger is extremely hard. I tried it at the gym today and the guy guarding me picked my pocket every time. Its quite amazing that Green even has the ball handling skills that he has now. Even shooting the ball can be a bit of a challenge and yet Green's turned into one of the best shooters in the NBA.
Even though his focus defensively leaves a lot to be desired, his work ethic and humble personality is certainly a blessing for this franchise:
"Like I've been saying all season, it's easy playing with guys like Goran and Ish. They create, break down the defense. I've got the easiest job in the world knocking down shots." -- Gerald Green on his 33 point performance
