San Antonio Spurs' Danny Green making most of his chance

Sam Amick | USA TODAY Sports

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Danny Green had been cut by the Spurs and spent time on multiple D-League teams

He didn%27t play much with Cleveland%2C the team who drafted him out of North Carolina

UNC coach Roy Williams and former teammate Mo Williams helped him return to the Spurs

MIAMI — Danny Green could have taken his ball, his ego, and his foolish pride, and gone on his way. Never to step foot on San Antonio Spurs territory again.

He had been deemed an outcast by one of the greatest basketball coaches there ever was in November 2010, getting cut by Gregg Popovich just six days after signing a 10-day contract in his second season out of North Carolina, and there were still 29 other teams that could have used a player with his sort of skill-set.

But Green — with his shooting prowess, defensive know-how and stat-stuffing ways that Roy Williams had grown to love during those college days where they won an NCAA championship together — saw a rare opportunity here to become a key piece of the Spurs' latest championship-caliber puzzle. So he picked up the phone and called the man who is known as one of the most intimidating figures in all of professional sports.

"Danny is the one who had to resolve it by saying, 'I know that I fit (in San Antonio), and I want to make it happen,' " his agent, Bill Duffy, told USA TODAY Sports. "I said, 'Then you call Pop'. He called Pop and said, 'I'm going to be back. I want to be back.'

"I think Pop really respected the fact that Danny had called him himself, and was almost apologetic about it. ... That's how he was able to come back. It's a great testament to Danny's resolve and his goal to be in San Antonio, but also to Pop and (general manager) RC (Buford) for having open mindedness and having the communication to give the kid a second opportunity."

And what a second chance it has been.

If the Spurs are able to finish this job against the Miami Heat and win the fifth championship they so desire, Green may very well wind up being the Finals MVP after what has been a remarkable run. He is shooting his way into the long-range record books while facing off against the legendary marksman who has set so many of these marks in the Heat's Ray Allen.

In the Spurs' Game 5 win on Sunday that put them up 3-2 in the series, Green set a new Finals record for three-pointers by surpassing Allen's mark of 22 set during his seven-game title run with Boston in 2008. That 6-of-10 performance from beyond the arc brought his combined totals to an astounding 25-of-38 (65.8%).

With four more three-pointers, Green would set a new mark for a playoff series of any kind by besting Allen's record of 28 (2001 in seven games while with Milwaukee against Philadelphia) that matched the Orlando Magic's Dennis Scott (a seven-game series in 1995 against Indiana). With 90 total points in five games, he trails only LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in Finals scoring while leading the Spurs (Tony Parker has 81 points, Tim Duncan 78).

Green's play on the other end has been as pivotal as his shooting, though, as Green has been part of a swarming Spurs defense that has so often frustrated Heat star, and his former teammate, LeBron James. The irony of it all, and Green's growth, is lost on no one.

Before Green found his way into and out of Popovich's doghouse and forged the most fascinating of careers — from the NBA Development League team in Reno after he was cut by the Spurs to the Austin Toros when they re-signed him five months later; a summer spent in Slovenia during the lockout where he kept his game sharp and set the stage for a breakout season in 2010-11 that led to a three-year, $12-million deal signed last summer — he was a second-round pick at the end of the Cavaliers bench who watched James in all his glory.

Green's talent was there, but the chance to shine was not. He played in just 20 games during his rookie season, and had a short assignment with the Erie Bayhawks of the NBA D-League before getting waived during training camp of his second season.

"I've seen the talent in practice every day," James said of Green. "We would always shoot after practice. It would be me, him, Mo (Williams) and Boobie Gibson shooting every day after practice. (I've) seen his ability to shoot the ball. In practice, he would play very well. I just think he needed an opportunity, and I said that before the series. He got a great opportunity here, and he's taking full advantage of it."

But it never would have happened if not for Green's willingness to change. He had been part of a looser team culture in Cleveland, developing the sort of practice habits that had enraged Popovich when they surfaced in San Antonio.

Williams played a part in Green's return to San Antonio, too, imploring Popovich to not give up on the player who averaged 13.1 points per game and shot 41.8% from beyond the arc in his senior season with the Tar Heels.

"When Pop and I talked for the first time after cutting him ... Pop said, 'He is here in practice and he is acting like he is doing us a favor by being here,' " Williams told USA TODAY Sports. "So it's a little bit of an attitude thing. When you are brought up on a 10-day contract, you had better do everything you can at every second to impress those people, because a 10-day contract is exactly what it sounds like.

"We had a talk and we did get into the basketball stuff. It was not that Danny had an attitude, it was just that Danny was not working and doing the things he needed to do. We had a great talk about it, he handled it really well. And when he got that other chance after those conversations, then there was nothing Pop or anyone on his staff could say because then Danny was (as dedicated as) he was with me."

Green's father, Danny Sr., was proud of the perseverance his son showed.

"He never lost faith in himself," Green Sr. told USA TODAY Sports. "Even in that time when (his future was uncertain), he said 'Absolutely not. I belong in the NBA. I can play in the NBA. And I'm going to prove it.'"

Green never hesitates to admit that his time in Reno was as humbling as it gets. His confidence had wavered, but he also knew that wasn't an option when it came to NBA survival. And when the Reno Bighorns went to such great lengths to land the player that they never expected to be available, his turnaround had officially begun.

The Bighorns had to trade for the rights to draft Green, doing a deal with the Sioux Falls SkyForce in which they gave up their best player, former Georgetown big man Patrick Ewing Jr. He played in 16 games (starting 15), averaging 20.1 points (45.1% shooting overall, 43.1% from three-point range), and 7.5 rebounds.

"I remember we were on the road in Texas, and the owners called me and said, 'We don't want you to do this (trade); Ewing is our best player,' " said Eric Musselman, the former Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors head coach who was coaching the Bighorns at the time and is now an assistant at Arizona State. "And I said, 'Too late, we've already done it.' "

When Musselman gave Green the, well, green light to fire away, he said, some other players complained.

"We were under the gun because we wanted the guy, and guys would come out of games and say, 'He's taking too many shots,' " he said. "Right now, I'm laughing (at that idea). Like, 'Are you serious? He didn't take enough shots.'

"Honestly, I get goosebumps (watching Green now). ... I told my wife, 'Can you believe that two years ago we had an owner tell us not to trade Patrick Ewing Jr. for him?' The guy is leading the championship in scoring. He's scoring more than Wade and LeBron (in some games). Are you kidding me? How did this happen?"

The phone call to Popovich started it all, and the Spurs have been calling on him ever since.

"(I've) definitely matured so much as a player being in this organization, being around Pop, Timmy, Tony, Manu (Ginobili), those are true professionals," Green said. "And also the opportunity. Pop gives us young guys a great opportunity to show what we can do."

Contributing: Eric Prisbell, USA TODAY Sports

Follow USA TODAY Sports NBA reporter Sam Amick on Twitter @sam_amick.