JOE GREEN-KEYS

There are certain people in everyone’s life that have a major influence on you growing up and Keys senior basketball star Joe Green is no exception. For him, a major influence that got him started in basketball was his sister Jonia Walker. She was a standout basketball player at Sequoyah Tahlequah, winning two gold balls and a silver and was the state tournament MVP in 2018 before moving on to play at NSU.

“She means a lot to me,” said Green. “We weren’t really close growing up but now we are. I loved watching her play at Sequoyah and in the state tournaments. We weren’t very competitive growing up because of our age difference but now that I’m older she’ll try to get out there and hang with me one-on-one,” he laughed

Another player that influenced him was former Cougar Trenton Nichols.

“He was really a role model for me when I started high school, He took me under his wing and taught me a lot and we’re still good friends even today.”

But perhaps the person that has had the most influence on him is his brother Aiden Hooper, a junior at Sequoyah.

“Aiden’s my best friend and we talk almost every day. We try to get together in the gym when we can and go at each other, trash talking a little but having a good time. We’re always competitive in basketball and we go to watch each other’s games when we can. We were also really competitive in video games like Fortnite and NBA 2K when we were younger.”

One of Joe’s goals entering this season was to reach the 1000-point mark for his career and in a strange twist of karma, he hit the 1000-point mark playing against his brother. But the thrill of the achievement was somewhat tarnished as Sequoyah won the game handily

“They were hitting everything that night,” Green recalled. “They shot the best they had all season long against us and it was kind of sad I had to get the 1000 point against my best friend but that’s the way basketball is.”

For the rest of the season, Joe Green has a couple of goals in mind.

“The rest of the season is about winning games and seeing if I can reach 1500 points.”

Joe is hoping to play basketball at the next level next year and has had some inquiries, most notably from Fort Scott Community College. And he hopes he can be an influencer for the younger members of the Cougars as others have been for him along the way.