Brian Greene had the perfect last name for his college of choice, the green-and-gold Colorado State Rams, where he starred as a basketball player and led the team to the 2003 NCAA Tournament, losing to Duke in the first round. After four years of basketball overseas he is back in the state as a member of the Colorado 14ers, which opens its second season Friday in the NBA Development League. Greene took time to sit with Denver Post staff writer Chris Dempsey for a question-and-answer session.
Q: So, I Googled the name Brian Greene. First guy that comes up is a theoretical physicist from Columbia U.
A: Yeah, I’ve heard that.
Q: You know him?
A: (laughs) I have no idea who he is. He’s pretty famous, I guess.
Q: Where are you on the ladder of famous Brian Greenes?
A: Hopefully second. I don’t know too many other ones.
Q: What about Brian Austin Green?
A: Oh yeah. So I’m probably third.
Q: You’ve played in Poland, Belgium and France. Which is the best?
A: Basketball-wise, France is probably the best, the best competition, best athletes. As far as living, I like Belgium better. Just a little bit smaller where you can travel a lot easier. Met a lot of good people there. I enjoyed living in Belgium. I enjoyed playing in France.
Q: But you averaged an overseas career-best 18.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in Belgium.
A: That was a good year. I had a good coach who let me play, and you can’t complain about a coach that lets you play. I had a lot of fun that year.
Q: What’s your craziest story playing overseas?
A: In Poland, you go on the road, you beat a team on the road and the fans go crazy. They come outside and throw rocks and snowballs at the bus. In Serbia and Greece, they light coins on fire and throw them at people so they’ll stick and burn their skin.
Q: Ever gotten hit?
A: Nah, most of the times we lost so it didn’t matter.
Q: You played with the Knicks this summer. How did that go?
A: I’ve been there the last two years. It was real good; I got to play a lot. It’s a lot easier once you know everybody in the organization. They have a lot of good guys, despite what you hear in the news.
Q: Let’s play word association.
A: OK.
Q: Duke.
A: Devil. (laughs) It was one of the most exciting and one of the most disappointing games I’ve played in. We should have won the game. That was the toughest part. Fouling J.J. Redick when we don’t have to isn’t the smartest thing to do.
Q: Colorado State.
A: Home. I grew up here. I have a lot of family in Fort Collins, and I’ve always been a Rams fan. It was a lot of fun to play there, a lot of fun to live there for four years. I miss it quite often.
Q: NBADL.
A: Steppingstone. It’s an opportunity to make a dream come true. The fact that I can do it at home is even better.
Q: NBA.
A: The dream. I think it’s every basketball player’s dream to play on the highest level, to play on the biggest stage. So hopefully it’ll come true for me.
Brian Greene’s top five
Top five all-time television shows:
1. Friends
2. Two and a Half Men
3. Rules of Engagement
4. American Gladiators
5. SportsCenter
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
