Oct. 10 (UPI) — Longtime NBA guard Danny Green will retire after 15 seasons, which included title-winning runs with three teams, he said Thursday.
Green made the announcement on his Inside the Green Room podcast. He cited injuries and a lack of interest from teams in free agency as the reasons for his departure from the league.
“I’m officially moving on from the game of basketball, the NBA,” Green said. “It’s been a great run. To me, I’m very proud to be able to walk away from the game. I’m at peace with it.”
Green, 37, won a national championship in 2009 at North Carolina and joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as a second-round pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.
He also played for the San Antonio Spurs, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers and Memphis Grizzlies.
Green won his first title in 2014 with the Spurs. He then won consecutive championships in 2019 and 2020 while with the Raptors and Lakers, respectively.
The sharpshooting guard-forward averaged a career-high 11.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game over 81 appearances in 2014-15 for the Spurs.
Green averaged 8.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game over 832 career regular-season appearances. He appeared in two games last season for the 76ers, but was waived in October after the team traded James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers.
“Once I turned 37, the body started reacting a little differently,” Green said. “The mind was also starting to lose its passion and same hunger that I had when I was in it.”
Green also said he didn’t think he had “that much left to prove.”
“My body was letting me know,” Green said. “I was getting little calf strains here and there. But also, when you get older, teams aren’t calling as much.
“Unfortunately, my services weren’t as sought after as they were when I was younger. It’s been a hell of a ride.”
