GREEN Josh

General
CHOOSING BASKETBALL
Growing up he played basketball and Australian rules football in Sydney, NSW, Australia, but ultimately chose to pursue basketball after his family moved to Phoenix, AZ, United States of America in 2014. He attended Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, AZ, and Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix, AZ, before attending the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. He was then recruited to NCAA Division I college the University of Arizona, where he played one season in 2019/20 before entering the 2020 NBA Draft. "Australian rules football was a big deal to me. I feel like I could've gone pretty far in Australian football. I was really good at it and I loved it. I chose basketball in the end because I was going to America, and there's no Australian football out there. Basketball was the end choice for me and I'm grateful I made that decision. We didn't really plan it [the move to the United States of America]. My dad got a job offer in the States about the same time as my older brother started getting recruited by colleges, so, because we wanted to play college basketball and stay together as a family, we decided to make the move." (foxsports.com.au, 08 Mar 2019; Trans World Sport Youtube channel, 26 Feb 2018; espn.com.au, 23 May 2019; wwos.nine.com.au, 08 Feb 2019)

CHOOSING AUSTRALIA
Due to his father being born in the United States of America, he qualifies for dual-citizenship there and in Australia, but opted to represent Australia. "I'm going to choose Australia 100 times out of 100. My goal is to put on a green and gold jersey. That's where I was raised. USA wouldn't really be a choice for me. I always want to do my thing for Australia. To be able to help kids back in Australia, it means a lot to me. My goal was just to represent Australia as well as I can. I might have been over here [United States of America] for about four years now [2019], but no matter what I do, I'm always going to be Australian and always going to make sure I represent the country well. It means a lot, just looking down and having 'Australia' on my chest." (espn.com.au, 23 May 2019; espn.com, 18 Jan 2019)

PROFESSIONAL CAREER
After playing the 2019/20 season at the University of Arizona, he entered the 2020 NBA Draft where he was chosen in the first round, 18th overall pick, by the Dallas Mavericks. He featured in 39 games in the 2020/21 regular season, playing an average of 11.4 minutes and scoring 2.6 points per game and making 2 rebounds per game. During the season he was also sent to play for the Salt Lake City Stars, in the NBA G League, where he played six games. "I feel as though my time at the University of Arizona has helped me prepare to take the next step to reach one of my goals of making it to the NBA." (espn.com, 10 Apr 2020; espn.co.uk, 17 May 2021; abc.net.au, 22 Nov 2020; espn.co.uk, 19 Nov 2020; mavs.com, 09 Mar 2021)