Danny Green was determined to get to Toronto.

After a summer storm cancelled all outgoing flights from New York, the 31-year-old NBA veteran and two childhood friends had to find another way to Pearson International Airport.

It had only been two weeks since Green was traded to the Toronto Raptors in a blockbuster deal with the San Antonio Spurs, but this August trip was circled on his calendar long before he found out he would be moving to Canada.

Green was somewhat of an afterthought in the trade which also brought star forward Kawhi Leonard to Toronto while sending fan favourite DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poeltl out the door.

“Oh, you’re including me now?” Green joked at an introductory press conference for the two newest Raptors. “I was wondering if I was going to get to talk today.”

The basketball world obsessed over how Leonard and DeRozan would react to having their worlds flipped upside down. Kawhi was silent. DeMar was miffed. And Green? Well, he was feeling right at home.

Every off-season for the last 10 years, Green has ventured north of the border. But instead of travelling east from Pearson into downtown, he headed for cottage country, 15 kilometres down a windy, two-lane road on the outskirts of Huntsville to be a guest coach at Olympia Sports Camp.

This summer, as he sat in the airport without a flight, Green contemplated breaking with tradition. His friends reminded him of how much they enjoyed the getaway. The kids were expecting him. And there was more hype than ever now that he was a Raptor. He knew he couldn’t let them down.

So they improvised.

“It was hectic man, we had to get a Ford Focus,” Green said. The cozy hatchback wasn’t the six-foot-six shooting guard’s vehicle of choice. “They didn’t have many rentals. They were all sold out.”

The compact car took them four hours up the coast to Boston, where the trio found a place to sleep before catching an early flight to Toronto. They arrived at Olympia with time to spare before campers went home at week’s end.

“The kids were pretty impressed. That’s not something most players would do,” said Dave Grace, the camp’s founder and long-time director. “It really meant a lot to me and everyone at camp, how much they went out of their way to make it happen this year.”

But how did a professional baller from Long Island end up at a Canadian sports camp in the first place? Green’s Ontario oasis began when he finished his college career at the University of North Carolina and was recruited by Gene Banks, a former Duke basketball star who’s been a staple at the camp for over 25 years.

Surrounded by 100-foot pine trees and the inviting glow of Oxbow Lake, Green tried to get accustomed to the intricacies that make Olympia unique — physically and socially. The spontaneous eruptions into song. The co-ordinated cheesy dance moves. The excessive group costumes. It’s a place where kids — and staff — are encouraged to shed their shell and be themselves. There are no expectations, and no judgment. It took some getting used to, but Green bought in.

“At first it makes you a little uncomfortable. It was not something I’m used to, coming from New York,” he said. “But after that, you get adapted and adjusted, and I fell in love with the whole energy. It’s a lot of fun and gave me real insight on how Canadians were.”

Founded in 1974, the camp started as a one-week basketball program. Then came football and a move to the 40-acre property near Algonquin Park. While it offers close to 100 sports and activities, basketball remains its greatest investment, and Green left an impression right away.

“He always participated and ran the drills with us,” said Kyle Forster, who was a camper at Olympia for seven summers. “He’d set it up and coach, but when the drill started, he would always run it just as hard as us. He even joined the scrimmage.”

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Over the years, Green enhanced his coaching package from teaching the fundamentals of the game and taking pictures with kids to providing real-life advice.

Green often tells the story of his humble beginnings in the NBA: drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, waived after 20 games, signed by the Spurs the following season, then waived again six days later.

After four tough months and a stint in the G League, he found a permanent home in San Antonio. The native of North Babylon — a hamlet on the south shore of Long Island — has tallied over 500 NBA games and seven full seasons with the Spurs. He has a championship ring to show for it.

“Whatever it is you want to do, just work hard,” Green said of the message he shares with the kids. “Not everybody in this league is the most talented guy in this world, but they’re able to stay in this league and make a good living for themselves because they work really hard at it and perfected certain things.”

Green showed the world what perfection looked like in the 2014 NBA final. He set a record by hitting 23 three-point field goals as the Spurs defeated LeBron James and his Miami Heat super-team in five games. That summer, he returned to Olympia for the first time as an NBA champion.

“He never changed,” Kelsie McEwan said. She started at camp the same year as Green and worked there for 10 years, watching him grow as a player and a person. “Even the summer after he set the NBA finals record for threes, he treated the kids the exact same and was excited and eager to work with them. He stayed humble.”

This past off-season, as Green made the move from south-central Texas to the north, presumably without the Ford Focus, it was a one-way journey. Getting the call that your home is no longer your home can be a jarring experience for any athlete.

As he settles into Toronto, Green holds onto the fact that he’s now closer to his family in New York — and his extended family in Huntsville. Getting traded was not something he sought out, but if there was an ideal destination, this was it.

“When I got the call that I was traded, I said, ‘oh, that sucks,’” Green recalled. “Then they said it was to Toronto. I thought, well, I can’t complain about that one.”

Those who know him from Olympia Sports Camp aren’t complaining either.

With files from Laura Armstrong and Doug Smith

BH Braydon Holmyard is a digital producer based in Toronto. He is also a Star contributor. Follow him on Twitter: @braydonholmyard

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