Green beholden by the chance, not the change

Very soon, Gerald Green is going to be very wealthy. The 6-foot-8 high school senior from Houston will be one of the top picks in the 2005 NBA Draft, and like so many of the NBA's nouveau riche, Green plans to waste no time before writing his first huge check. He doesn't know the exact amount, but he knows the exact percentage:

Ten percent.

Gerald Green averaged 33 points and 12 boards his senior year in high school.

"The first thing I'm going to do is thank God and pay my tithe," Green said, referring to the biblical offering of one-tenth of one's salary. "He's the reason I'm in this position. I really can't believe I'm where I am."

At that exact moment, Green was in Chicago for the NBA's ceremonial weighing and measuring of top draft prospects. Green was sitting in a ballroom at the Chicago Wyndham, at a table in front of a large placard bearing his name.

Green was surrounded by media. Other stars of the NBA Draft sat at other tables with their own placards and their own media throngs.

There was Andrew Bogut of Utah, the projected No. 1 overall pick. There were three members of the 2005 national champion North Carolina: Raymond Felton, Sean May and Marvin Williams. Illinois' Deron Williams was nearby. So were Syracuse's Hakim Warrick and Arizona's Channing Frye.

Grown men, most of them. College stars. Famous people.

And then there was Green, whose shock at being in the same room wasn't feigned.

A year ago, as the Class of 2005 entered the summer before its senior season, recruiting analysts saw Green as not quite an A-level recruit -- a good player to sign, but not a McDonald's All-American. Entering that summer Green was ranked No. 53 nationally by Insiders.com. The Hoop Scoop ranked Green the No. 9 junior -- not nationally, but in the state of Texas. That's a big state, but still ... No. 9?

NBA scouts knew better. For more than a year, while the rankings celebrated more muscular high school seniors like Tyler Hansbrough, Richard Hendrix and Tasmin Mitchell, scouts pegged the skinny Green as the class of his class.

None of them told Green, of course. When he committed to Oklahoma State in late June, it wasn't for show. The Cowboys weren't his safety net in case the NBA didn't work out. The Cowboys were his future.

"When I picked Oklahoma State, I was just hoping to work hard enough where I could contribute as a freshman," he said. "I was excited to play for Coach (Eddie) Sutton."

One week after committing to Oklahoma State, Green began to assert himself as an elite player in the class of 2005. It started in early July at the Reebok ABCD Camp, where he led all campers with 18.2 points per game, then led all scorers again in the camp all-star game with 27.