Danny Green has been retired from the court for a while now, but Toronto still has a way of showing up in his conversations.
The former Raptors guard recently joined Spectrum SportsNet and was asked to build a Mount Rushmore of teammates from his 15-year NBA career. With six teams and hundreds of locker-room connections to choose from, the list was never going to be simple. Green opened with the obvious heavy hitters.
"LeBron [James] and Tim Duncan are definitely up there for me. The next two are where it gets really dicey," Green said.
He mentioned a few other familiar names from San Antonio, including Manu Ginobili and Patty Mills, but neither cracked the top tier for him the way Kyle Lowry did. That lines up with how Green has talked about Lowry before, calling him a "great, loyal teammate."
Lowry’s place on the list isn’t much of a surprise. He was the face and voice of the 2019 championship Raptors, and Green clearly still holds him in high regard.
The more unexpected name came with Green’s final pick. He said he had strong bonds with Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, but the last spot went to a teammate who is still active and, in Green’s words, just had a personality that stuck with him.
"This kid is still playing to this day, and he's just funny. He'd show up to my house all the time - OG Anunoby," Green said.
"He's a great kid. I've seen him grow, and he was a part of our championship team, but he was hurt. He's just a great man."
Green and Anunoby only shared one season in Toronto, but that hasn’t kept them from staying in touch. Green said the two still talk regularly, usually with Anunoby sending him "something crazy" every two or three months.
"I love hearing from him," he said.
Green, who won three NBA titles with three different teams, announced his retirement ahead of the 2024-25 season. He’s still around the league, though, now working from the media side. Last season, he joined ESPN and NBA Today and also called a handful of Los Angeles Lakers games for Spectrum SportsNet.
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