How Willie Green’s Sixers career fueled his path to coaching the Pelicans: ‘He fought for every inch’

Every time Willie Green is on a plane descending into Philly, the memories flood back.

He thinks about Larry’s Steaks near St. Joe’s, or his barber in West Philly. Or about his long list of influential teammates and mentors, from Aaron McKie and Eric Snow, to Billy King and Tony Dileo.

“It just brings a smile to my face,” Green recently told The Inquirer.

Green is now head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, who on Friday must beat the Sacramento Kings without injured star Zion Williamson to keep their season alive and move on to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference playoffs’ first round. During his three seasons leading that team, Green has been publicly lauded for a 2022 in-game “You’ve got to freakin’ fight!” motivational speech that went viral, and for the fact that, at age 42, he’s still got the hops to dunk.

Yet Green established his NBA foundation with the 76ers, blossoming from a second-round draft pick in 2003 to respected role player in seven seasons, and into a man that those around him then are unsurprised has forged a successful path into coaching.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid gives the Sixers a rare Olympic superstar — and makes Team USA even better

More than 20 years since he first touched down in this city, Green still credits his Sixers tenure with fostering his ability to connect with people across an organization, to blend joy and professionalism at the sport’s highest level, and to embody Philly’s essence.

“I feel like if you can play on the East Coast, you can play anywhere,” Green told The Inquirer last month, following a Pelicans practice at Temple. “It adds another layer of mental toughness that you need in sports, that you need in life. …

“I’m proud about the work ethic that Philly makes you [possess]. This city, you better work hard here, or they’ll boo you off the floor.”

Green chuckles when asked about his initial days here. Back then, all he knew was Detroit, where he grew up before starring at the University of Detroit Mercy. His first Sixers training camp, under then-coach Randy Ayers, made him doubt whether he was cut out for the NBA. But McKie was immediately “blown away” by the young shooting guard’s combination of fluidity, scoring versatility, and competitiveness.

“Day 1, when we got in the gym, I realized how good he was,” McKie recently told The Inquirer by phone. “It wasn’t like Willie was a 6-10 athlete. He was 6-4, at best, and he came in the gym and was playing above the rim.”

Green, in turn, leaned on veteran teammates such as McKie for guidance. He borrowed a sports coat from Snow that he never returned. He wrote his first check. He witnessed Allen Iverson’s relentless playing style first-hand. He spent nights on the road at movie theaters or at restaurants, where they all dove into deep conversations about the eating habits and rest required to prepare the body for career longevity.

That’s why Green says today that he “learned how to be an adult here in Philadelphia.” But because of how he carried himself daily — his motto was “keep it humble” — longtime head athletic trainer Kevin Johnson refused to call Green a rookie.

“And I wouldn’t let anybody else call him rookie,” Johnson recently told The Inquirer. “The team was like, ‘Well, what are we going to call him? I said, ‘I call him an inexperienced, first-year player,’ and that stuck.”

» READ MORE: Can you name all the Sixers to represent Team USA at the Olympics?

That maturity benefitted Green while organizational tumult swirled during those early years. His rookie season, Ayers was fired in February and replaced by assistant Chris Ford. It foreshadowed the three other Sixers coaches — Jim O’Brien, Maurice Cheeks, and Eddie Jordan — for whom Green would play. The team finished under .500 in five of his seven seasons, and never advanced past the playoffs’ first round. Later, 17 games into the 2007-08 season, King was fired from the Sixers’ general manager position and replaced with Ed Stefanski.

To counter any out-of-his-control upheaval, Green focused on his efficient-yet-diligent routine, which Johnson confirmed with, “You could count on one thing on an off day: Willie Green was coming in to get some work done.” Green pulled McKie into one-on-one battles. He prided himself on being 15 minutes early to the team bus, and the first player on the floor for pregame warm-ups.

“No matter what change you think is going on, there’s always somebody watching,” Green said. “[That] sticks with me to this day. … It’s easy to sort of take the road that’s least resistant. I’m going to go party. I’m going to go hang. Nobody cares. We’re changing coaches every day.

“[The veterans] were on me about, ‘You have an opportunity to have a long career in this.’ ”

Green solidified himself as a dependable on-court contributor, who focused on defense and “erred on the side of aggression,” McKie said. Green also became a double-figure scorer for two seasons from 2006-08, and started all 74 games he played in 2007-08. Across those seven seasons, he averaged 9.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 422 games.

As Green became more entrenched in Philly, the collective mentality reminded him of his hometown Detroit. He remembers a game when he was booed for fumbling the ball, even though he still regained control of it. But he ultimately felt embraced by the fan base because, “I might not have been the first lottery pick that was highly scouted or talented, but I left it out on the floor when I played.”

“The booing, it means you suck. It means you need to do better,” Green said. “I’ve been places where fans don’t care whether you win or lose, and I would rather have fans that care and are paying attention.”

The internal relationships also deepened for Green during those years. Johnson fondly recalls one time when Green’s son, Ross, was invited to a birthday party at a local bowling alley for Johnson’s son, Mitchell. When Johnson tried to pay for the lane rental and food upon leaving, he learned Green had already called and taken care of the bill.

“I was like, ‘Why would you do that? It’s my son’s birthday party, not Ross’?’ ” Johnson said. “He was like, ‘Man, you’re like family.’ ”

» READ MORE: Q&A with Sixers assistant Doug West on coaching all levels, reuniting with Nick Nurse, and more

Though Green said he was not thinking about becoming a coach at this point in his basketball life, McKie and Johnson correctly predicted his path. Green was astute while studying film and game plans, they said. When McKie returned to the Sixers as an assistant coach, their rapport mirrored how Green could eventually relate to players.

“He watched me every day and what I was doing,” said McKie, who was most recently the head coach at Temple. “I wasn’t playing anymore, but I was still connected to the game. … I was able to be fresh out of the game, and having a better understanding of what’s going on in the player’s brain.”

Following his stint in Philly, Green spent time with the New Orleans Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, and Orlando Magic before retiring in 2015. He joined the Golden State Warriors’ staff as an assistant coach in player development the following season, where he worked under Steve Kerr on two championship-winning teams. The Phoenix Suns’ Monty Williams — another Sixers connection — then hired Green in 2019, where he ascended to the top assistant post as the Suns exploded from 2020 NBA bubble darling into the 2021 NBA Finals participant.

That all propelled Green to the Pelicans’ head-coaching job. When his first team got off to a dreadful 1-12 start, he tapped into the lessons from Philly. He focused on creating a sharp preparation routine, which helped fuel a massive turnaround to make the play-in tournament, win both games to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2018, and then push the top-seeded Suns to six games in their first-round series.

Last January, the Pelicans sat atop the Western Conference standings before a season-ending injury to Williamson derailed a once-promising season. They climbed as high as fifth in the West standings last month, before a late-season slump landed them in the play-in. They will now need that “freakin’ fight” mindset to avoid elimination against the Kings, after losing a heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Lakers in Wednesday’s play-in opener.

Throughout those bouts of adversity and success, Green has encouraged his players to form the bonds he once experienced inside a locker room — and that he still regularly rekindles today. While on a golf trip in South Florida last month, McKie drove through a rainstorm to see the Pelicans play the Miami Heat. Whenever a matchup against the Sixers arrives, Johnson said he and Green share “a big ol’ smile, and a big ol’ hug.” Any time he runs into somebody from that time in his career, Green said, “you would think we won a championship.”

“We explain to [the current players] that we’ve been in you guys’ shoes,” Green said. " … You’ll have those brotherly relationships for the rest of your lives. We’re always drip-feeding it here and there.”

That’s why every plane descent into Philly remains special for Green. And why McKie believes Green “hasn’t even scratched the surface on the great coach that he’s going to be.”

“He’s just getting started,” McKie said. “Everything is earned for Willie. Not given. … [He] fought for every inch of his career.”