Signed
COMPLETED
Rickey Green
One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Rickey Green: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you have a better example of his signature, or a story about it, the note at the foot of this page still stands.
'The Fastest of Them All,' Hot Rod Hundley called him. A 1977 All-American at Michigan, Green washed out of Golden State and Detroit, rebuilt his game with the CBA's Hawaii Volcanos, and got his second chance from Frank Layden in 1980. In Utah he became the point guard of the franchise's rise — a 1984 All-Star, the first CBA alum ever so honored, twice the league leader in total steals, and the floor general of the Jazz's first-ever playoff team.
A rookie named John Stockton gradually took the job, and Green finished with five clubs in four years. In 1988 he scored the five millionth point in NBA history on a buzzer-beating three, autographed the ball, and off it went to the Hall of Fame.
HOW HE CAME & WENTHe arrived in 1980 and took the club to its first playoffs and first division title. By 1988 John Stockton had the job, and rather than spend one of eight protected spots on a 33-year-old, Utah left him unprotected in the expansion draft. Charlotte took him.
- Utah Jazz tenure
- 1980–88
- Position
- Guard
- Born
- 1954, Chicago
- Height
- 6′0″ (183 cm)
- Weight
- 170 lb (77 kg)
- College
- Michigan
- Drafted
- 1977, 1st round (No. 16), Golden State
With the Jazz
RICKEY GREEN · 1980–88 · PER GAME| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–81 | UTA | 47 | 27.8 | 9.0 | 2.5 | 5.0 | 1.6 | 0.0 | .481 | .000 | .722 |
| 1981–82 | UTA | 81 | 34.8 | 14.8 | 3.0 | 7.8 | 2.3 | 0.1 | .493 | .000 | .765 |
| 1982–83 | UTA | 78 | 35.7 | 14.3 | 2.9 | 8.9 | 2.8 | 0.1 | .493 | .154 | .797 |
| 1983–84 | UTA | 81 | 34.2 | 13.2 | 2.8 | 9.2 | 2.7 | 0.2 | .486 | .118 | .821 |
| 1984–85 | UTA | 77 | 31.6 | 13.0 | 2.5 | 7.8 | 1.7 | 0.0 | .477 | .300 | .869 |
| 1985–86 | UTA | 80 | 25.2 | 11.7 | 1.7 | 5.1 | 1.3 | 0.1 | .471 | .172 | .852 |
| 1986–87 | UTA | 81 | 25.8 | 9.6 | 2.0 | 6.7 | 1.4 | 0.0 | .467 | .368 | .827 |
| 1987–88 | UTA | 81 | 13.8 | 4.9 | 1.0 | 3.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | .424 | .211 | .904 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 8 SEASONS | 606 | 28.6 | 11.4 | 2.3 | 6.9 | 1.8 | 0.1 | .479 | .206 | .820 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Did you know
RICKEY GREEN · 8 NOTES- Led the NBA in steals in 1983–84 and made the All-Star team that season.
- Led Michigan to the 1976 NCAA championship game.
- Two teams had already given up on him and he was playing CBA basketball in Billings, Montana, when Utah called — three years later he was an All-Star.
- He led Hirsch High on Chicago's South Side to the 1973 Illinois state championship.
- His 1984 All-Star selection was the first ever earned by a player who had come up through the CBA.
- He led the NBA in total steals in back-to-back seasons, 220 one year and 215 the next.
- At 36 he started 75 games for Philadelphia after an injury to Johnny Dawkins, averaging 10 points a night.
- A Deseret News columnist wrote in 2019 that he had tried three phone numbers without ever reaching him, and the Jazz had lost count of their own attempts.
All photographs
1 PHOTO