15 best Michigan basketball NBA careers in Wolverines history

6. Rickey Green

Rickey Green is a 6’0 point guard from Chicago who led his high school to a state championship way back in 1973. He then starred for two seasons at Vincennes in southern Indiana before transferring to Michigan for his final two years of eligibility.

He did more than enough in those two years in Ann Arbor, averaging greater than 19 points per game in both seasons and emerging as a major scoring threat. He helped lead the Wolverines to the national championship game as a junior and was a First-Team All-American as a senior.

The Warriors drafted him with the 16th pick in 1977 and began a 15-year NBA career that’d see him play for eight different franchises. His best work came in an 8-year stretch with the Utah Jazz, with him making his only All-Star Game in 1984, the same year he’d lead the NBA in steals.

Those years in Utah were his best as a scorer and facilitator, averaging 7.4 assists per game in his first seven seasons with the Jazz. His final years saw him as more of a reserve for several different teams.

Green was a prominent figure for the Jazz in the 80s and was their ball handler and a potent scorer for much of his time there. He didn’t win any titles or set any records but his career was certainly memorable and successful. No former Wolverine notched more career assists or steals in the NBA than Green, who was also a pretty decent shooter as well.