Former St. John’s college basketball defender Lee Green died at 49 on Monday of the CCP virus in one of 125 COVID-19 death cases in New York City thus far.
NTD refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
The New York Post broke the news based on information provided by Green’s close friend and former teammate Lamont Middleton.
Green’s longtime coach Ron Linfonte also posted on Twitter: “It is with much sadness to inform all in my SJU family that we lost Lee Green to COVID-19 today. A Parade All-American who played 3 years at #SJUBB Lee was our warrior on those teams. A true lock em up defender that relished shutting down the best opponents. RIP Lee.”
It is with much sadness to inform all in my SJU family that we lost Lee Green to Covid-19 today. A Parade All-American who played 3 years at #SJUBB Lee was our warrior on those teams. A true lock em up defender that relished shutting down the best opponents. RIP Lee???????? #gone2soon pic.twitter.com/X4TIPbVvoU
— Ron Linfonte (@SJU5) March 24, 2020
Green was a Parade All-American at Tolentine High School in the Bronx and played for St. John’s from 1991 to 1994, reaching two NCAA tournaments.
“He was our defensive lockdown guy,” Linfonte told the Post. “He could score if he needed to. He was one of the guys who really relished the role of ‘give me your best player, and I’ll lock him down.’ He sacrificed his offense a lot for the good of the team, and he was everybody’s favorite.”
He remained a fan of the Red Storm well after his career ended, attending a match as recently as January, where his friend Sterling Nunnally saw him healthy and smiling.
Green had no known medical condition that could have undermined his immune system. “It’s crazy,” Nunnally said. “He was healthy and smiling and everything [when I saw him recently].”
Green was a retired police officer and was still active as a DJ under his stage name “El Dorado.”
“My brother, my teammate, it’s kind of hard,” Middleton told the Post. “Cool guy. Everywhere he went, Lee had a smile. He had a big personality.”
“It’s just a terrible thing that happened to him,” said Brian Mahoney, another of his coaches at St. John’s. “It really caught everybody off guard.”
