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sw33t...
party at woolys.
BTW bird33... do you remember andrew toney?
TF.. remember Kevin Brooks (I don't remember him)
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Fucking sweet draft by the C's.
Gimme the scoop on Greene, 8.
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**From our local paper today**
Orien Greene was a revered figure in Florida in his younger days, but he didn't act like it when he went to Tampa in the spring to prepare for life in the NBA.
Greene's eagerness to improve his game helped make the former Louisiana Ragin' Cajun standout a second-round choice of the Boston Celtics (No. 53 overall) in Tuesday night's NBA Draft in New York City.
"It was an interesting situation," said David B. Thorpe, the Executive Director of the Five Star Training Center in Tampa. "Orien is a legendary prep figure in the state of Florida, and I didn't know if he would come in here thinking he was bigger than us, or come in and try to get much better.
"But he was totally willing to learn from Day One."
Greene had two workouts with the Celtics, cementing their interest with his second performance after Thorpe and his camp altered Greene's offensive game.
"He really shot it in the second workout," Thorpe said. "He was able to dominate some good players. And, from that workout, we felt he would go to Boston. In fact, I think his agent told other teams not to pick Orien unless they could guarantee something because we felt certain Boston would pick him.
"When he came to us, we told Orien we have to change your shot. I needed six months but I had six days. The first thing we did was work on his shot from long-range. A close second was his mid-range game.
"We worked on stepping back, and on his pull-up jumper. We wanted him to get back to being a great athlete, and he said the other day that he's jumping higher than he ever has before."
Greene has also added six pounds of muscle since leaving the Cajun program, and according to Thorpe "looks like a football player now. In fact, his parents haven't been here the whole time, and they came today and were shocked by what they saw."
"Orien Greene has always been very special to our program," UL coach Robert Lee said. "He's very gifted. We're very, very excited for him and for our program that he was picked in the second round, and I think he'll eventually be a very good NBA player.
"The fact that he has trained hard doesn't surprise me at all. Since he left school, he's changed his jump shot. He's shooting the ball a whole different way. He has put in the work, and he truly deserves this."
Greene's concentrated work on offense made sense after being named the Defensive Player of the Year in the Sun Belt Conference for the 2004-2005 season.
The 6-foot-4 standout overcame a broken leg to help Lee's Cajuns to a second straight Sun Belt Conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth. In that injury-shortened senior campaign, Greene averaged 11.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while registering 68 steals in 25 games.
"Nobody really understands how talented Orien is," Lee said. "Last year, because of the injury, people didn't really see the real Orien Greene. So it's good to see that the professional teams understand what kind of a player he can be."
Greene played his first two years at Florida before transferring to UL and helping the Cajuns to the 2003-2004 Sun Belt title. He repeated that feat last season, and now is ready to further elevate his game in the NBA.
Orien Greene is the ...
11th UL player ever to be drafted by an NBA club;
First UL player to be drafted into the NBA since Kevin Brooks was a first-round selection and the 19th overall pick in 1991 by the Milwaukee Bucks;
Second UL player to be drafted by an NBA team since the league went to a two-round draft in 1989;
Only player drafted from the Sun Belt Conference this year, and the first from the league since 2002 when Arkansas State center Jason Jennings was a second-round pick by the Portland TrailBlazers;
First non-center drafted from the Sun Belt Conference since 1996, when Arkansas-Little Rock's Derek Fisher and Western Kentucky's Chris Robinson were picked.
Previous UL NBA Draft picks
1974 Fred Saunders, Phoenix Suns
1975 Larry Fogle, New York Knicks
1975 Calvin Crews, Atlanta Hawks
1980 Andrew Toney, Phil.76ers
(1st round, 8th overall selection)
1982 Alford Turner, Denver Nuggets
1983 Dan Gay, Washington Bullets
1984 Dion Brown, San Antonio Spurs
1984 Alonza Allen, L.A. Clippers
1986 George Almones, N.J. Nets
1991 Kevin Brooks, Milwaukee Bucks
(1st round, 19th overall selection)
2005 Ori
Orien Greene is the ...
11th UL player ever to be drafted by an NBA club.
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Will he be able to crack the Marcus Banks/Delonte West PG rotation? (assuming GP doesn't return)
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WINNER: CELTICS
The Boston Celtics' brain trust couldn't believe it when high school phenom Gerald Green of Texas started sliding down the first round. With the 18th pick, Boston gets a 6-8 freak athlete who has been compared to Tracy McGrady.
Then the Celts got Providence College star Ryan Gomes, a burly 6-7 forward, and Orion Green, a heck of an athlete, in the second round. Luck of the Irish I guess.
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Do I remember Andrew Toney?The Boston Strangler.Alabama Mr Basketball from the age of 14 to 18.No I dont remember him.
See You In Toledo
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How great was Matt Walsh crying on draft day?He lives a couple minutes from me in a rich faggity neighborhood.I hope I see him at a bar so I can ask him which Asian country will he be playing ball in.
See You In Toledo
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It's amazing how many dumbass kids decided to leave school early, when they weren't even a surefire first rounder. Just ridiculous.
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anyone read that article on ESPN.com about all the SEC players who declared for the draft only to get passed over. Hilarious.
I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours