Orlando Magic forward Jeff Green was forced to put his NBA career on hold because he had to undergo an emergency open heart surgery stemming from an aortic aneurysm.
Instead of regretting his long absence from the basketball court, Green is praising God for giving him another chance to play basketball again following the successful heart surgery.
''It's been five years and it's totally a blessing,'' Green told NBA. com on the fifth anniversary of his open-heart surgery on Jan. 9. ''To be able to sit here and say that, to still be here in the NBA after heart surgery, it's a real blessing."
Green said that after everything he's been through, he has learned not to let the small things stress him out. After having the surgery, his doctors told him that the tissue around his heart had started to tear a little bit.
He believes that everything that has happened to him happened in God's perfect timing.
"God took care of me," the Christian athlete said. ''I understand what a blessing it is to play this game, knowing the circumstances that I had to go through. A lot of us take the game for granted, but that's not the case for me. I'm truly humbled by the game and when I say it, I mean it. I'm very blessed to still be able to put on this NBA uniform and do something that I love. How many ever years that I've got left, I'll cherish every bit of it.''
Green's optimism put a positive end to his tumultuous health journey. Four days after he had surgery, his heart rate was very high. He found himself choking but could not cough. There were times he would just break down in tears because of the pain he felt.
"I'm a fit guy, I'm a skinny guy, but to look in the mirror I was bloated with all of the meds. It definitely did not look like myself and that was the hardest thing to see. But the doctors told me that that was the first thing I needed to do — look at myself in the mirror and see who I am now and deal with it and try to get back after that, because it was going to take a while before I was able to start the rehab process," he said.
