Rockets’ high-flying Jalen Green was once NorCal, Bay Area high school superstar

SAN FRANCISCO – If Houston Rockets star Jalen Green looks comfortable playing against the Warriors at Chase Center on Saturday night in Game 3 of the teams’ first-round series, that should not be a surprise with the series tied 1-1.

The 22-year-old, who scored 38 against the Warriors in a Game 2 win, has plenty of experience playing pressure-packed games in the Bay Area.

As a junior at San Joaquin Memorial in Fresno, his season ended at Oakland’s Laney College against Bishop O’Dowd in a 66-61 loss in 2019.

Longtime O’Dowd coach Lou Richie made Green, then the top-ranked high school prospect in California and a social media sensation, the sole focus of his defensive game plan.

His athleticism was jaw-dropping.

“He definitely had a sixth gear, and you could tell he had that fast twitch, to where most people can jump this high, but he could go even higher,” Richie recently told this news organization. “You weren’t gonna outjump him.”

Green scored a game-high 19 points while being swarmed by defenders, with Richie remembering that his team played “old O’Dowd basketball” where defense was the first, second and third priority.

“We were just trying to keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible,” O’Dowd’s Monty Bowser told the Bay Area News Group after the game.

Richie’s Dragons were not the only Bay Area team that didn’t want to be put on highlight reels by a teenage Green.

In three years at San Joaquin Memorial, Green broke the school’s scoring record with 2,291 career points, passing NBA players such as the Lopez twins and longtime NBA win Quincy Poindexter.

He led SJM to back-to-back section titles in 2018-19 and advanced to the NorCal regionals.

Along the way, Green dominated against Bay Area powerhouses such as De La Salle, Moreau Catholic and Dublin despite just scratching the surface of his prodigious talents.

“With some kids you can look at them and go, ‘That guy is going to get a lot better,’ and that was the case with him,” Mark Tennis, a California preps historian with Cal-Hi Sports, told the Bay Area News Group. “Super fast, super quick, great scorer, dynamic dunker and all that stuff, but still, when you were around him, you saw he was still just a kid.”

Against Dublin, Green scored 39 points and made shots so improbable that longtime Gaels coach Tom Costello was left shaking his head when interviewed postgame.

“When the kid’s hitting step-back 30-footers with a hand in his face, you kind of tip your cap,” Costello said. “What are you going to do?”

Green was named the Cal-Hi Sports sophomore of the year, and just missed out on junior of the year to current Cavs star Evan Mobley.

Green spent his senior year of high school at Napa-based Prolific Prep, a program that plays outside of the California Interscholastic Federation which governs the state’s high school sports.

As a senior in 2019-20, Green averaged 31.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists while leading Prolific to a 31-3 record the Grind Session championship.

He left the program as its single-season scoring record holder after putting up 1,008 points in his lone season in the North Bay.

But even after a year away from the Central Valley, Green did not forget his roots, returning to graduate from the school with his friends.

“They are one Northern California community that will not be rooting for the Warriors, because they love Jalen Green,” Tennis said.

From there, Green skipped college and played a season with the now-defunct G League Ignite team, which also starred current Warrior Jonathan Kuminga.

Green was then drafted No. 2 overall by the Houston Rockets, where he has become an integral part of the team’s rebuild from the cellar to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

After missing the playoffs for the first three years of his career, Green’s growth has coincided with the Rockets’ ascent up the Western Conference standings.

Combining with Warriors antagonist Alperen Sengun and San Leandro native Amen Thompson, the youthful trio has given Houston a physical, athletic and gritty persona.

Unlike many other highly-hyped prep superstars, Green provides an example Richie says more high schoolers could learn from.

It is a mindset that has led him to being a key player in what has been a highly competitive series against Golden State.

“When you’re 14, 15, 16 everyone tells you, you’re a pro, but how many kids do we know that don’t make it,” Richie said. “Whether because of attitude, injury or life, you have so many reasons for it not to happen.”

“When you find that rare of a talent that can listen, and absorb something that is being taught, for us as coaches, that’s how we want all of our players to turn out,” Richie said. “He’s extraordinarily athletic and talented, and it’s nice to see kids grow up and achieve.”