If someone can brag about sharing the locker room with some of the best players to ever live, that’s definitely Danny Green. He was teammates with LeBron James in the 2009-10 season at Cleveland, then joined Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker at the Spurs, and later saw Kawhi Leonard blossom and followed him to the Toronto Raptors.
Now, Green is back with the King and has added Anthony Davis to his resume. And that’s why he was recently asked what was it like to be surrounded by such incredible talents and how they were on and off the court.
And contrary to what most people could believe, his answer wasn’t basketball-related at all. According to him, the most impressive thing about hanging out with those superstars was getting to actually know them as ordinary people:
“Playing with any star is a lot of fun, and not just when you see them operate on the court and in the facilities, but in real life, and it’s cool to see and for all to see guys like us or those guys be just like you. They have the same issues. They go through the same things, same thought process, carry themselves the same way every day. How they operate when they take their kids to school, or picking up facetime and talking to the people, their business handling manager, how their thought process is, its cool to be around, cool to see, and also to bond with those type people, even though they’re looked at as superstar type people, and they give you stories that they heard about, like that’s crazy, like oh shit,” Green told Tom Azarly and Ryan Ward on the Battle for LA podcast.
Green went on to describe the way he sees LeBron handle the burden and perks of ordinary life. He also claimed that he’s learned a lot from him as a person and realized that they’re not that different at all despite him being one of the greatest athletes to ever live:
“He actually knows this person; he’s interacted with this person. Certain things like that, you know, you guys look at us as celebrities, when we’re really not, we’re just basketball players. To see those types of guys, have experiences similar to yours, with other people who you’ve looked up to or watch or celebrities, and have cool stories. It brings you back to your kid days, and you’re still like a little kid, and you want to hear this info, these stories. Just like you guys with your podcast, even my podcast, I want to hear these stories, what people have to say. On the daily and a lot of that stuff, you can’t share, but it’s good to know,” he concluded.
I guess that’s something that comes with stardom. We tend to look at NBA stars like superheroes but at the end of the day, they have the same dreams and fears as most of us.
