“I told Danny Green to stop f****ing around and get your game right”: How Shaquille O’Neal’s advice to former LeBron James teammate grabbed headlines in the 2019 NBA Finals
Danny Green has made a living out of shooting from behind the arc but the 3 time NBA champ struggled to find his form once and Shaq helped him out
Green was drafted in 2009 into a team that had two of the most dominant players in Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James.
Although Shaq was at the latter end of his career and LeBron had planned his departure to the South Beach, Green must have learned a lot from both of them in a season.
Danny Green joked about Shaq’s suggestion to him during 2019 NBA Finals
While speaking to media post-match after Game 3 of 2019 NBA Finals Green opened up about O’Neal’s constant shooting advice to him following the Eastern Conference Finals against Milwaukee Bucks, where he shot an abysmal 0 of 9 in the last 3 games and 4 of 23 in 6 game series.
And surely enough after following The Big Diesel’s advice Danny back to his usual self, helped Toronto Raptors beat the heavily favored Golden State Warriors in the Finals. In total, Green made 12 threes in the series, playing a big role in both offense and defense.
This was not the first or the last time Green played an important role of being the 3 and D guy for a championship team.
Green had an NBA record for most 3-point field goals made in a Finals series
Danny was the go-to shooter and perimeter defender for Gregg Popovich’s Spurs for the better half of 8 years, he helped them reach the 2013 Finals and win it all in 2014, against the defending Champions Miami Heat.
It was during the 2013 Finals, where he made 27 threes, which was then the NBA record for most 3s made in an NBA Finals series, and guess how many 3 pointers Shaq has made? One. He has attempted less 3s in his career (22) than Green made in those Finals.
Shaquille O’Neal was a different player altogether, a 4 x NBA champion, 3 x NBA Finals MVP, 15 x All Star, he never believed in shooting.
It’s just all fun and love when he was with his rookies or ex-teammates. Green described his relationship with Shaq,
“He’s a very creative guy, I did sing a couple of songs. A little dancing. You had to greet [O’Neal and other veterans] a certain way. It was all fun and games, but it’s a lot different when you’re a rookie that’s playing than a rookie that’s not playing. They had a little fun with me because I wasn’t playing much.”
Even LeBron James said “I wasn’t really the veteran on the team that made the rookies do stuff, most of the time it was Shaq. Shaq made him(Green) do everything.”
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