Ex-Hoya Jeff Green donates $1 million for new Georgetown athletics center
It's not easy to raise $61 million.
But it's a bit easier when you have a Hall of Famer alongside a six-year NBA veteran helping your cause.
Earlier this week, Georgetown Hoyas great Patrick Ewing joined longtime sports agent David Falk in donating $3.3 million toward the total $61 million cost of construction of the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center at Georgetown, for which a groundbreaking ceremony will be held in September.
Then on Thursday came the announcement of a $1 million donation from Boston Celtics forward Jeff Green, who led the Hoyas to the Final Four back in 2007. And Green gave the gift on his 28th birthday.
"I'm very fortunate to be in a position to give back to the university and to the program that has done so much for me," Green said. "Georgetown and Georgetown basketball is at my core and is part of who I am."
The building, which is named in honor of Hall of Fame men's basketball coach John Thompson Jr. -- Georgetown's coach for 27 years -- ought to help boost the Big East school in the facilities wars that are an enormous part of college hoops recruiting these days. Great facilities are a point of pride for college coaches nationwide, and Georgetown's will be one to brag about: a four-story, 144,000-square-foot building that will have practice courts, meeting rooms, coaches' offices for men's and women's hoops, and weight-training and sports medicine rooms for all varsity athletes. It'll also house a new Georgetown Athletics Hall of Fame.
"Jeff's commitment to our school and to our program speaks not only to his experiences as a student and an athlete here, but gives a small glimpse into who he is as a person," said Georgetown head coach John Thompson III.
