Dear Mr. Green,
I would like to start off by saying how truly sorry I am for my actions over the past two months since the start of the 2012-13 NBA Regular season. I took the time prior to the Celtics Christmas Day game against the Brooklyn Nets to watch the ESPN feature on you and your recovery from heart surgery. I must admit that for the majority of this season I have been nothing but frustrated and disappointed with your performance thus far. You have had some flashes of brilliance, to the point that I was ready to declare that you were over the hurdle, but those have been few and far between unfortunately. Your performance in the preseason and monster dunk against Utah had me hoping that we would all eventually stop hearing about Kendrick Abdul-Jabbar, but it has not come to fruition of yet.
As mentioned, I took the time to watch your special feature on ESPN, and I must say it was nothing short of moving. It is because of that feature that I decided to write this letter. All too often with Boston sports, we take our teams far more serious than we should and forget the human aspect of the game. The Boston fans and media have caused countless nervous breakdowns to occur between players and managers of the four major teams in the Boston market. We forget that these are people and expect perfection out of them at all times, regardless of circumstances. While some players may be great at handling adversity such as the flu or the death of a parent or loved ones, we often fail to consider how we would operate under similar circumstances should such a scenario be placed onto our own shoulders. And that is where you come in Mr. Green.
Yes, I knew you had heart surgery, but until I saw the scar on your chest, I don’t think I ever fully understood or appreciated just how severe the situation really was. You feature made me truly understand just how dangerous a situation you were involved in and just how frustrating and painstaking the recovery truly was for you. And that is where this apology comes in. The past few months are clearly one of the aforementioned situations where we the fans somehow forgot your situation. When you struggled early on, we didn’t stop to think that this was a guy who was recovering from heart surgery, we just assumed that Jeff Green circa 2011 postseason was back. When you seemed lost, slow, and out of place we didn’t stop to think how we might play ourselves had we been through heart surgery just under a year ago. And for that, I apologize for the entire fanbase of the Boston Celtics.
I hope that the damning comments that have been written about your play have not spoiled the image you have of the Boston Celtics fanbase; please understand that we are a passionate group that loves to win and loathes losing. We take the game far too serious and let it effect our everyday lives far too often, we forget that this is a game; one that provides us with inspirational stories such as your own. I write this now in an attempt to salvage that relationship between the fans and you Mr. Green in hopes that you can give us another chance, and that the fans may take a step back and give you a chance before they jump the gun on you again. I understand how frustrating it must be for you that you’ve yet to have a complete season here without some type of asterisk next to it (came in midway in 2011, heart surgery in 2012, recovery in 2013).
Lets hope that in 2014 you can have a whole season without an issue so that you can take steps forward. But do understand there is only so much power behind this letter, it may only hold off the masses for so long before they are going to again expect results. Without the results one day, we will forever hear of the mythical Hakeem Perkins, your tenure here may be viewed as a disappointment performance wise if you never fulfill the potential we all saw, but if nothing else you are still an amazing inspirational story, for none of us would even imagine returning to work after heart surgery as you did and get the results you have, and for that I extend my sincere gratitude.
Sincerely,
Nick Sannicandro
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