Green's injury brings back memories for Daniels

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BOSTON -- The scene was all too familiar to Marquis Daniels.

Jeff Green lay at the same end of the court near the same basket where Daniels fell motionless two seasons ago.

On Friday, Green suffered a bruised left cheek and chipped teeth after taking an elbow to the
face from Ersan Ilyasova during a fight for a loose ball. The swingman stayed down on the
parquet as medical staff attended to him, while the Boston Celtics looked on in concern and
Daniels sat anxiously on the Milwaukee Bucks bench worried about his former teammate.

"I just saw him laying down there," Daniels told CSNNE.com. "I knew it had to be bad. Jeff's a pretty tough guy. I just hope he can recover from it soon."

Rewind to February of 2011. Daniels was attacking the basket against the Orlando Magic when he collided with Gilbert Arenas and crashed on to the floor in temporary paralysis. Just as they did with Green, the Celtics medical staff rushed to Daniels' attention and teammates watched hoping he would be ok. Daniels was wheeled off the court in a stretcher, the future of his career unknown. Further tests revealed he suffered from spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal, and required surgery.

After his own injury, Daniels did a made a quick assessment of Green from across the court.

"I just wanted to see he was moving first," Daniels said. "He was moving, but you could tell he was in obvious pain. I was just glad he was moving and still had feeling, because you never know. This game is a lot more physical than what people think it is."

Daniels got to know Green last season when Daniels re-signed with the Celtics. The two only
shared the court for a short time, though, before Green underwent season-ending heart surgery in January. After Green's hard-fought recovery, Daniels grew concerned over the injury given the amount of time Green stayed down. The Celtics swingman was diagnosed with a bruised left cheek and chipped teeth. He is listed as day-to-day.

"Anytime I see a player down like that, that's not good," said Daniels. "I don't like to see that
regardless if you're on my team or not. I sent a prayer out for him."

Nearly two years after Daniels' injury, he thought only about his former teammate and not his own scare on Friday night. He refuses to be held back by what happened on the parquet in 2011.

"I don't even think about it," he said. "I don't even look at the videos. I try not to think about it because that was probably close to the worst thing that can happen out there, not being able to move. I'm just glad Jeff was able to move and he'll be ok."

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