Boston Celtics: Jeff Green Triumphant in His Emotional Anniversary

January 9, 2012, Jeff Green was in a hospital bed for heart surgery. January 9, 2013, Jeff Green was throwing down nasty dunks and helping the Celtics pull away from the Phoenix Suns. 

An emotional day for Jeff Green was punctuated by one of his best first-half performances. On the anniversary of one of the biggest and most frightening days of his life, he went out and gave the fans something to cheer about.

It really puts things into perspective as a year before the game, Jeff Green was just happy to come out of his heart surgery alive. Wednesday night, Green was happy to throw down big dunks on two straight Celtics possessions to ignite a Celtics run that would give the Celtics all of the momentum in the second quarter.

The first dunk came on a one-dribble drive by Green. He palmed the ball and went over the top of the defense with a strong one-handed slam. 

On the very next possession, Green ran the break and was rewarded with an alley-oop pass from Avery Bradley to finish with another strong two-handed slam. 

All of this just goes to show you how precious life is and how we should all appreciate what we have. 

On January 9, 2012, Jeff Green was lucky to have his life after a potentially life-threatening heart ailment required open-heart surgery, which is never a guarantee. One year later, on January 9, 2013 Jeff Green still realizes he is lucky to have his life. Instead of counting his lucky stars in a hospital bed, he is doing so on the basketball court, where he is happy to be excelling again.

Let Green be a lesson to everyone: Appreciate life at all times and realize just how lucky you really are. 

Jeff Green knows he is lucky to be where he is, and he is appreciating playing basketball more than ever before.

Quite honestly, the outcome of the basketball game has much less meaning than the symbolism behind the performance.  It is just great to see an inspirational return from heart surgery be punctuated like this on the one-year anniversary.

One year ago, all Celtics fans shared with Jeff Green, being happy that he simply was alive. Now, Jeff Green and all the fans are overjoyed to see him back and playing better than ever before. 

He truly is an inspiration and a lesson for all of us.