Although he only spent a season and a half with the Celtics, Boston still has a special place in Javonte Green’s heart.
“For sure it’s special,” Green told WEEI.com before Wednesday night’s game against the Pistons. “This is where it all started, so it feels good to come back to the Garden, and just compete, and see the guys.”
The Celtics signed Green in 2019 after a standout Summer League performance. He spent the 2019-20 season with Boston before being traded to Chicago in a three-team deal that brought Luke Kornet and Mo Wagner to Boston in March, a late deadline because the season had been delayed by the bubble.
His tenure was short, just 74 games including playoffs, but he developed close relationships with his teammates. He remains especially close with Jayson Tatum and has been checking in on him as he works his way back from a ruptured Achilles.
“I check in every once in a while, just making sure everything’s going well,” said Green. “As I can see, it’s going pretty good from a recovery standpoint. He looks good on his recovery side, just seeing all the stuff he posted on social media as well. That’s the progress. I’m excited for his return, because I know how hard he worked to get back to where he’s at now.”
To Green, it’s Tatum’s competitiveness and drive that stand out during this relentless rehab process.
“You can see it, just how competitive he is,” he said. “I knew when he went down. Nobody wants to wish that on, nobody. But I knew he was going to bounce back. I’m just excited to see how the work he has put in pays off and progress.”
Now 32 and on his fourth team since leaving Boston — his third in three years — Green says he still keeps in touch with Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard, as well. Watching the Celtics win the NBA Finals in 2024 was something he described as a “blessing.”
“Even when I was here, you just see it reading the media, all the doubts that they had that those two [Tatum and Brown] would not win, and just to see them prove everybody wrong is a blessing,” he said. “I was extremely proud of those guys to win, especially Joe. Just seeing how Joe came to practice every day and just tried to make everybody better around him. For them to win it all, it was a great feeling.”
Mazzulla was a player development coach when Green was in Boston, and Green says he always knew he had what it took to succeed as a head coach.
“When he got the job, I already knew he was going to be great at it because I already knew how he attacked work when he was an assistant,” Green said. “So I know he was gonna keep that same energy when he was a head coach. I’m just proud of him as well.”
And like many who’ve been around the Celtics, it’s Mazzulla’s unique personality that stuck with him.
“Joe has always been crazy, man. It wouldn’t be Joe if he weren’t crazy. That makes him who he is. And I mean everybody loves him for that reason.”