An ode to Danny Green, an all-time favorite Spur

Danny Green is fan favorite Spur, but he’s also one of the nicest players to ever wear Silver and Black.

Other than everyone’s favorite My Man Manu Ginobili, Danny Green has always been my favorite Spur, perhaps because his back story is so compelling. He barely even made the NBA. He played four years at North Carolina, barely got drafted, and was cut several times, including by the Spurs. But he persevered and became one of the four players in the entire NBA history to win three NBA crowns with three different teams. And none of those titles were ring chasers where he was at the end of the bench: DG started for each of those three NBA champions. You may have heard of the only other player to do that. His first name is LeBron.

I have probably written more Pounding the Rock articles about Danny Green than I have about any other Spurs player. I have pulled out some highlights below. But before we get there, I want to talk about what a great person DG is.

When he was with the Lakers, he randomly sat next to my son Pablo and Pablo’s super daughter Kennedy at a breakfast bar at a diner in Manhattan Beach. It was Kennedy’s birthday, Pablo and Danny got to talking, and when he left, Danny wished Kennedy a big happy birthday. Two weeks later, Danny ran into Pablo and asked him how Kennedy was doing. How many NBA players would even remember meeting Pablo, let alone remember Kennedy’s name? Over-under on that question is two. (Patty Mills is the other.)

I had a similar experience with DG when he played with the Lakers. I described that meeting in a post from March 5, 2020, just before the world shut down.

Those two points coalesced in my recent visit to Staples Center for a Fan All-Access event partially sponsored by my law firm. At these Fan All-Access events, you can go on the court to shoot baskets, visit the Lakers locker room, hobnob and get pictures taken with former Lakers players and, occasionally, an active player will also show up.

Danny Green was not on the program as an attendee for this year’s Fan All-Access event. I did not find this at all surprising — the event was this past Monday, immediately after the Lakers finished a back-to-back Saturday/Sunday road trip to Memphis and New Orleans, with a Tuesday home game against the 76ers to follow. Even without the road trip, with a long post-game flight the night before, veterans generally are not asked to appear at these events, only rookies and much more junior guys are. Finally, as I reported earlier, the LA Times reported that the Lakers had offered up DG in a trade to the Knicks for Marquis Morris two weeks earlier.

Later, I had my picture taken with James Worthy. As I stood next to him for the picture, he said to me, “Spurs guy, huh?” I was amazed that he remembered our encounter from last year’s All-Access event when I had talked to him about the Spurs, and he had commented that Gregg Popovich was a “righteous dude.” It turns out that he did not remember the encounter at all; he saw the Spurs logo on my cell phone cover while our picture was being taken. Funny moment.

But then a friend at the event texted me: “Danny Green photo.” It turns out that DG, despite all the reasons for him to not attend, had volunteered to sit around on his one night off with a bunch of fans who wanted to have their picture taken with Lakers players. Veteran guy, new to the organization, almost just traded, tired from the road trip. None of those possible excuses prevented him from volunteering his time when no one would expect him to do so. And fans like me got their picture taken with my favorite ex-Spur Danny Green.

One more thing. I went to the Lakers game against the 76ers the next night. Just before the tip-off, DG sprinted over to the 76ers bench to give head coach and former Spurs assistant Brett Brown a big hug. Even though he has moved on, Danny Green still personifies the Spurs’ culture of “good people.”

Here are excerpts from two of my other posts that honor my guy Danny Green. The first has the great title “Its Time to Remember How Awesome Danny Green is”, which I wrote in 2017.

He has been cut several times, including by Cleveland when the Cavs were not very good, and the Spurs when they were good and recognized talent when they saw it. He can’t really dribble, has no go-to moves, can’t take his man one on one, and his passing skills are pedestrian. Nonetheless, a coach much smarter than I am has decided that Danny Green deserves to start on one of the best basketball teams on the planet. DG is truly the epitome of Bruce Bowen’s comment that the Spurs don’t focus on what a player cannot do, but instead they focus on what a player can do.

This year, an incredible 79% of his shots come from three. (Come to think of it, that’s a lot like my game.) Because he shoots 44% from three, and four out of five shots are from beyond the arc, his true shooting percentage is 62%. How does that compare to the rest of the Spurs? He leads the team. Which is why he continues to be the Spurs’ starting shooting guard, and I continue to shout “C’mon Dannygreen” whenever he rises up to shoot.

I will also steal from something I wrote in late 2020, after DG won his third crown, with the Lakers. This one was titled “Danny Green Keeps Moving But He Also Keeps Winning”.

I have written a great deal about Danny Green for Pounding the Rock over the years. At one point I wrote a piece which compared him to notorious non-shooter Tony Allen of the Grizzlies. That piece led directly to a faux late night call from Danny to me in my annual April Fool’s Day post in a 2016 piece. In that phone call, DG pointed out that his winning percentage was the highest ever. I just checked for an update: DG still has the sixth highest winning percentage in the history of the NBA at 72.7%. That translates to 59 wins per season. Those are amazing numbers. (If you are curious, the all-time NBA leader in winning percentage is Kawhi Leonard.) Danny also had the sixth most wins in the 2010-2019 decade.

An article from 2018 included a poll of Pounding the Rock readers asking them to identify their favorite active ex-Spur. The winner, handily, was Danny Green.

One more thing before I sign off. For those of you who are still hooping, let me give you some advice. Before your next game, Google “Danny Green’s 27 threes in the 2013 NBA Finals” — and watch it before you go play. Enjoy Mike Breen shouting “DannyGreen!!” after each three-pointer, as if DannyGreen was one word. (It is.) When you play after watching that, you will definitely be pumped up to move without the ball hunting three-pointers. And when you get the ball, let if fly, and shout “DannyGreen!” each time the ball splashes through. I did that in my Sunday morning game yesterday, and it felt very good each time I drilled another three.