Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Trade to Connecticut brings mixed emotions for Greene

The casual observer might think that a former UConn star would be grinning from ear to ear with the news that she was being traded to the Connecticut Sun.

For Kalana Greene, that is only partly true.

She was ecstatic at the prospects of playing in front of many of the same fans who rooted for her during her UConn days and she is extremely close friends with her former UConn and current Connecticut Sun teammates Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery.

But during Monday's media day at Mohegan Sun Arena, Greene admitted that leaving behind her teammates and fans in New York was not easy for her.

"It was bittersweet," said Greene, one of four UConn graduates among the 15 players at the first day of Connecticut Sun training camp. "I miss New York, I love New York but I just felt numb. It was surreal. I didn't think it was going to happen and it happened. I didn't know how to feel. I don't think until I came back to the United States that I thought 'I am going back to Connecticut.' The emotions were pretty weird.

"It is always good to play the sport you love with people you love, people you are familiar with. It is going to be fun but at the end of the day you still have a job to get done, a lot of expectations to live up to."

While Greene was on an emotional roller coaster as she heard the rumors of her being traded to the Sun, Charles and Montgomery were so happy they could barely contain their enthusiasm.

"I got all these tweets 'are you excited, can you believe it?'" Montgomery said. "I was just like 'what is going on?' I knew it was draft day but I didn't know if I should be excited about. TT (Charles) hit me up and said 'yo, K-Bear (Montgomery's nickname for Greene) is coming to our team.' It is hard to explain. Obviously first off I am excited that she is my friend and another one of my closen friends on the team and then player wise, she did a lot against us for New York last. She came in got rebounds, scored, got and ones and was just disruptive. Now she can do it for us."

The biggest news to come out of the first day of training camp was that Thibault said Sandrine Gruda "probably won't be here at all."

The belief was that Gruda would join the team at the end of the European Championships but apparently she is going to follow the lead of fellow European Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and skip the upcoming WNBA season.

There will be more on the scrimmage the Sun played either later tonight or tomorrow.

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