Johnny Green, Jumpin’ Knicks All-Star, Dies at 89
Johnny Green, an All-Star forward for the Knicks in the 1960s who gained fame for his leaping and rebounding prowess during fourteen National Basketball Association seasons, died Thursday in Huntington, NY. He was 89.
His death in a hospital was confirmed by his son Johnny Jr., who said his father had had heart and kidney problems for about a year.
Jumpin’ Johnny, as he became known, stood 6 feet tall and about 200 pounds, but he often defeated bigger and fiercer opponents on the front lines, grabbing rebounds, blocking shots and hitting baskets at point-blank range.
It was also durable; he avoided serious injuries and had some of his best seasons late in his career. He played in the NBA until he was 39, retiring after the 1972-73 season.
Green was an All-American at Michigan State University in his junior and senior seasons. As a sophomore, he led the Spartans to a share of the 1957 Big Ten championship with Indiana and a berth in the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.
In a national semifinal played in Kansas City, Mo., Green had 11 points and 19 rebounds as the Spartans lost to undefeated North Carolina, 74-70, in triple overtime. (The Tar Heels defeated Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain 54-53, also in triple overtime, for the national title, The first in North Carolina.)
“He jumps like he’s 6-10,” said Lennie Rosenbluth, an all-American from North Carolina who scored 31 points against Michigan State but saw many of his shots blocked by Green. “He’s got the fastest hands I’ve ever seen.”
The Knicks selected Green in the first round of the N.B.A regular draft. in 1959, number 6 overall. (Chamberlain was chosen by the Philadelphia Warriors and Bob Ferry by the St. Louis Hawks in the now-defunct territorial draft, in which teams could acquire popular players from local colleges who would presumably attract fans.)
Green appeared in three All-Star Games while playing for New York teams that did not make the playoffs. His best season with them was 1962-63, when he averaged 18.1 points and 12.1 rebounds.
The Knicks of Green era had other talented players, most notably Richie Guerin and Carl Braun at guard and Willie Naulls and Kenny Sears at forward. But they lacked a dominant center.
They traded Green, along with forward Jim (bad news) Barnes and guard Johnny Egan, to Baltimore in early November 1965 for Walt Bellamy, the Bullets’ star center, in the hope that Bellamy could be the answer to their long search for someone who could compete with Chamberlain and Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics. Bellamy was a prolific scorer, but the Knicks didn’t capture their first NBA championship until 1970, with Willis Reed at center.
After leaving the Bullets, Green played for the San Diego Rockets and the Philadelphia 76ers, and he appeared to be near the end of his career when Philadelphia released him after the 1968–69 season.
But Bob Cousy, who had become coach of the Cincinnati Royals after a stellar career guarding Celtic championship teams, thought Green was far from done. He saw him as fitting for the fast-paced offense and urgent defense that Cousy was installing.
Green signed with the Royals in September 1969 and, after briefly training for Cousy, led the NBA in shooting percentage in his first two seasons with Cincinnati. He appeared in his fourth All-Star Game in 1971, at the age of 37.
He finished his career with the Kansas City-Omaha Royals, Cincinnati’s successor.
Green averaged 11.6 points and 8.6 rebounds for his NBA career while averaging just 23.3 minutes per game. But he only played on three teams that made the playoffs.
John Michael Green was born on December 8, 1933 in Dayton, Ohio. He was raised primarily by his mother, Catherine Perry, who earned a living selling souvenirs.
He stood just under 6 feet tall as a teenager and did not play basketball at Dunbar High School in Dayton. After a stint as a construction worker, he joined the Marines and experienced a growth spurt. While stationed in Japan, he played for his outfit’s basketball team and was noticed by Dick Evans, a Michigan State alumnus, who coached the base’s football team.
Evans “saw that I could jump pretty well and asked me to dunk,” Green recalled in a 2009 interview for Michigan State. “I did it on the second try.”
Evans recommended Green to the Spartans’ basketball coach, Forddy Anderson, and Green visited the East Lansing campus while on leave. Anderson said he had to come back after he was discharged from the military.
Green did so even though he did not receive an athletic scholarship, relying instead on financial aid under the GI Bill. After impressing Anderson while playing for the Spartans’ freshman basketball team, he was promoted to the varsity in January 1957 and became an instant star.
Green led Michigan State to an outright Big Ten title and a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament in 1959. In his final game, he scored 29 points and had 23 rebounds in a loss to Louisville in the Middle East Regional Final.
He averaged 16.9 points and 16.4 rebounds for the Spartans. His uniform number, 24, was later retired.
After leaving professional basketball, Green owned a McDonald’s franchise near New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Green’s first wife was Ester (Dorsey) Green. They had twins, Jeffrey and Johnny, and a daughter, Karen, and divorced in the late 1970s. He had a daughter, Yvette Fogg, from a second marriage to Alzonia Green (her birth name also happened to be Green); that marriage ended with her death in the mid-2000s.
Besides Johnny Jr. Green’s survivors include his other children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
As Green entered his final NBA season, he reflected on his growth spurt after leaving high school and the help he received from an unlikely source.
“I wasn’t big enough or good enough when I was young,” he told United Press International in November 1972, at the start of his senior season. “I developed late, and it took the U.S. Marines to come through for me.”
Alex Traub reporting contributed.