A former NBA first-round draft pick, who never amounted to much in the league and who reportedly has a history of fighting with other athletes, has now been accused of attempting to rob an Indiana gas station.
Just after midnight on November 8, police in Goshen, Indiana, about 20 minutes south of the Michigan border, received a report of an unruly man at an area Phillips 66. A clerk there claimed that a man — later identified as 34-year-old Donté Greene — entered the store and demanded: “[G]ive me all the money!”
When the clerk took his cell phone out of his pocket to call police, Greene supposedly told him to put the phone away and not to contact law enforcement. Surveillance footage from the store also indicated that Greene meandered about the store for a while, removed items from his own pockets, and even took off the shirt he was wearing.
Greene also allegedly “lunged” at the clerk, who continued to back away behind the counter, police said.
Workers at a Taco Bell adjacent to the Phillips station eventually called 911 regarding the incident. Turns out that police had already been canvassing the area for a drunk driver. They quickly arrested Greene and charged him with attempted robbery, intimidation, and interfering in the reporting of a crime. He faces up to six years in prison, if convicted.
Notably, Greene was not charged with any alcohol-related offenses, despite reports of a drunk driver in the area. He also did not have a weapon on him when he was arrested, and he did not take anything from the store, reports say.
Greene is probably best remembered for the high expectations many basketball fans had for him after a successful season at Syracuse University, during which he led the team in points. He then declared for the 2008 NBA Draft and was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. However, the Grizzlies immediately traded him to the Houston Rockets, who then traded him to the Sacramento Kings in August of that year. Greene then spent four lackluster years with the Kings and their NBA Development League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns.
Greene then bounced around various NBA Development League and NBA Summer League teams before eventually heading overseas to continue his career. He had stops in Puerto Rico, China, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.
In 2011, Greene supposedly got into a fight with former Kings teammate, DeMarcus Cousins. He was also arrested for fighting with former St. Louis Rams linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar outside a Miami nightclub in 2014.
Arrest records indicate Greene currently resides in Waldorf, Maryland, about 75 miles south of Towson, Maryland, where Greene grew up. Why he was in Indiana at the time of the incident is unclear.