Danny Green, NBA champ with Raptors, announces retirement
Five years out from his last game for the Toronto Raptors, Danny Green is calling it a career.
The NBA journeyman and three-time league champion officially called it quits on Thursday, as per new ESPN hire Shams Charania.
After 15 NBA seasons, Danny Green says he is retiring. Green, who’s announcing the retirement on his podcast Thursday, is one of four players in NBA history to win championships with three different teams (2014 with Spurs, 2019 with Raptors, 2020 with Lakers). pic.twitter.com/d2mIOG62lh
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 10, 2024
Though he spent just one season in Toronto, Green has had one of the most unique and widespread NBA journeys in league history.
He played 15 seasons for six teams, including the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies. He has averaged 8.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in 832 regular-season games.
While the 2018 blockbuster that sent DeMar DeRozan to the Spurs is often referred to in Toronto as the “Kawhi Leonard trade,” Green was also acquired in that trade en route to becoming a key component and a starting member of the 2019 NBA-title-winning squad.
Green averaged 6.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 24 games for the Raptors in the 2019 playoffs, where he won his second NBA championship, having also won with the Spurs in 2014 and the Lakers in 2020. He is one of only four players in league history to win a title with three separate teams, per Charania.
In a weird twist of fate, it took Green almost three years to actually get his championship ring from Toronto. Due to Toronto playing in Tampa Bay in 2020-21, and various games cancelled or played without fans because of the the COVID-19 pandemic, Green missed several opportunities to be honoured in Toronto before it finally happened in April 2022.
One of the game’s more charismatic players who has been podcasting since 2018, Green seems headed towards a media career. Having been a regular recurring guest on ESPN since 2022, it seems like only a matter of time before we figure out what’s next for Green.
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