Danny Green retires from the NBA after winning titles with three different teams

After 15 NBA seasons, Danny Green announces he is retiring from basketball.

Green, who announced his retirement on his podcast Thursday, is one of four players in NBA history to win championships with three different teams (2014 with the Spurs, 2019 with the Raptors, 2020 with the Lakers).

“I am officially leaving the sport of basketball, the NBA. It was a great run,” Green said. “I am very proud to be able to leave the game. I’m happy with it.”

The 37-year-old Green was known as a 3-point shooter — he was a 40 percent shooter from behind the arc in his career — and a leader in the locker room throughout his career. He played two games for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2023-24 before being released following the James Harden trade to the LA Clippers.

Green was drafted in the second round by the Cavaliers in 2009 and spent one season in Cleveland before eventually finding his place with the Spurs, where he spent the majority of his career, averaging a career-high 11 in 81 games in 2014. Scored 7 points. 15. He was also named to the All-Defensive Team in 2016-17.

He finished his career with averages of 8.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in 832 games. His 1,577 3-pointers rank 43rd in NBA history, and he is one of only 12 players to make that many 3-pointers and shoot at least 40% from distance.

He also ranks ninth in postseason 3-pointers with 315.

“My body let me know. I got little calf strains here and there,” Green said. “But as you get older, teams don’t call as often. Unfortunately, my services were no longer as in demand as they were when I was younger. It was great fun.”

Green is one of only four players – Kyle Korver, Rashard Lewis and Trevor Ariza are the others – to have made as many 3-pointers as him without being a first-round draft pick. After winning a national title with North Carolina, Green was the 46th overall pick in the draft by Cleveland. He was a starter in San Antonio for seven seasons and helped the Spurs win the title in 2014. He was traded to Toronto as part of the Kawhi Leonard deal, was a starter on the Raptors team that won a title in 2019, and was a starter again on the Lakers team that won a title in the pandemic-hit 2020 season.

“People ask me, ‘How did you learn to be a winner? How do you become a leader?'” Green said. “And it’s the people before me, the people who taught me, my coaches. They prepared me to be successful because at the end of the day, I'm just a normal kid. I had some height, but I wasn't particularly athletic. I just worked really hard, and I had the good resources around me to learn how to be professional and do things the right way.”

Green suffered a torn ACL and ACL when teammate Joel Embiid fell on him during Philadelphia's playoff loss to Miami in May 2022. In the next two seasons he only appeared in 17 more games (four in the playoffs).

He will now focus on continuing his broadcasting career, the GreenLight venture fund to support innovative entrepreneurs, the Between the Lines mentorship program and The Throne basketball tournament, which is supported by Green and the National Basketball Players Association.

“I’m looking forward to the next chapter, the next journey,” Green said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.