Gerald “Gerry” Greenspan, the new boys’ varsity basketball coach at Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, has a long history in the MetroWest community.

As a member of the powerhouse teams at Weequahic High School in Newark, he won All-Newark, All-Essex County, and All-State honors before his graduation in 1959. He played for the University of Maryland Terrapins, leading the team in scoring and rebounding to win All-Conference honors, and was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals, now the Philadelphia 76ers. Some of the game’s greatest players were among his teammates, including Wilt Chamberlain, Dolph Schayes, and Hal Greer — a fact Greenspan said hastened his departure from the NBA after two seasons. He played in the Eastern League for several more years before finally retiring from the hardcourt.

In an interview with NJ Jewish News, the new coach said he was looking forward to the experience, but realized there was a lot of work ahead.

Greenspan, who lists his day job as president of Archie Schwartz, a Livingston realty company, took the gig simply because “someone asked me. It sounded interesting and I’ve always enjoyed working with kids.”

It’s been about 30 years since Greenspan, who turns 65 on Nov. 22, last coached, and that was a junior high school team. A lot has changed in the interim. There is more competition for kids’ attention in the extra-curricular field.

He admits working within the strictures of a Jewish school is challenging. Greenspan has only one player returning from last season; this year represents a rebuilding process. He’s quickly learning about Kushner’s competition — all Jewish high schools — and is impressed by the camaraderie among players from the different teams.

The students are in class from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., so working out the 14 members of the team — some of whom commute from as far away as Staten Island and East Brunswick — requires careful planning. “I’d have practice every night. They want to practice.”

“It’s a long, long day for them and I give them a tremendous amount of credit,” Greenspan says.

As of this writing, the team is perfect; they’ve won their only league game, against Torah Academy of Bergen County. “It’s the first game in 40 years I’ve won,” Greenspan joked.

“I was pleasantly surprised. I don’t think I expected [them] to be this good. They love the game. They handle the ball a lot better than we did when we were younger. They’re very enthusiastic.”

The kids are similarly impressed that their coach was once in the NBA. “I’m having a good time,” Greenspan said. “They’re a nice group of boys. I like them. I think they like me. Either that or they’re afraid of me.”

Greenspan was inducted into the JCC MetroWest Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. At the induction dinner, he told the audience that time enhances a player’s greatness. “The older you get, the better you were.” He demurred at the notion that he was “a nice Jewish boy.” “I was the meanest, nastiest basketball player on the college scene,” he recalled, citing a few incidents of anti-Semitism and remembering how it made him all the more determined to do well.

Greenspan’s mother had been born a Christian but converted to Judaism. “Thank God,” he said. “I never would have made it into the Christian Sports Hall of Fame.”