“How Bright the Lights Were”: Danny Green Credits Gregg Popovich for Keeping Young Spurs Locked In During 2013 Finals

Robert Horry was never a star in the NBA, but he made a reputation for himself as being an indispensable part of multiple champions throughout his career. If there’s a player since then who’s followed a similar path, it’s Danny Green.

Green won a national title as part of a dominant North Carolina Tar Heels team in 2009, and he retired from the game in 2024 after winning three NBA titles. While he won rings in 2014, ’19, and ’20 with the Spurs, Raptors, and Lakers, respectively, it was his first NBA Finals appearance in 2013 that stands out as his best.

The 2013 Finals are remembered now for Ray Allen’s clutch 3 to send Game 6 to overtime, but if that shot hadn’t gone in, there’s an excellent chance that Green, not his more celebrated teammates like Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, or Tony Parker, would have become one of the unlikeliest Finals MVPs in history. He lit the Heat up in that series, especially in the first five games, as he averaged 18 points per game while also guarding Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

Green cohosts the No Fouls Given podcast, but he also appeared this week on Byron Scott’s Fast Break, where he talked about what it was like to perform so well in the Finals when he was such a young player. Unsurprisingly, he gave credit to Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, one of the best ever to do it, for keeping the team focused.

“In the moment, I didn’t realize how big [the moment was],” he said. “Pop did such a good job of keeping us young guys so locked in to not know how bright the lights were, or the moment. It was just, ‘Focus on the assignment.’ And it was like not letting your teammates down, and this is what we gotta do to beat Miami.”

“So in the moment, I’m not even thinking we’re in the Finals. I’m like I just gotta guard Dwyane Wade, I gotta guard LeBron, and I gotta make shots so we get a chance to win this thing. It wasn’t until two or three months later that I was like, ‘Damn, that was the NBA Finals.'”

Green definitely held up his end of the bargain. He was unconscious from 3-point range, knocking down all five outside shots he took in Game 2, seven of nine in Game 3, and six of 10 in Game 5. Green almost made more 3s than the rest of the Spurs combined, and he tied Chris Bosh with a series-high 11 blocks, too. He also topped Ray Allen’s record for most 3s made in a Finals, a number that’s only been surpassed since by Steph Curry.

Allen’s history-altering shot propelled the Heat to an unforgettable series win in seven games, but rather than let it break them, the Spurs came back with a vengeance the next year and destroyed Miami in five games. That was the end of the Big 3 era, though interestingly enough, Green ended up teaming with LeBron and winning the bubble title with him in 2020.