Danny Green on Balancing Life as a Student-Athlete and a Kid, 'It's Tough'
It's easy being on the outside looking into the livelihood of players. Often we wonder why they do the things they do or make what seems so simple so hard. No one has no idea what they go through, which is why it's essential to understand how vital this excerpt from Danny Green's interview is so relevant.
During his appearance on "The Player and the Fan," Green talked about the difficulties of managing being a student, an athlete, and a kid; three things people often misconstrue. His answer was one for the ages. It brings reality to a faulted fantasy of what being a student-athlete is like at a top collegiate program. Green was as vulnerable as it gets.
In the passage below, you will see what he faced in the wake of being at Carolina and what he returned to after testing the NBA waters. In the video above, you can see him talk at length about what it means to be more than just a student-athlete.
Danny Green:
Yeah man, it's tough. Especially your first year. Your first year is probably the toughest with adjusting to going to class, doing study hall, and then practicing and focusing on basketball at the same time. That's pretty much what you're there for, your main part is basketball, but you still have to focus on school and everything else, which is a top priority. And then dealing with home, and a lot of people don't understand this, or know this, but you become the head of the household sooner than you expect, and sooner than you want to. And a lot of times that's before you even make it to the league. Maybe not right away, but in your second or third year, maybe third and fourth year of college, everybody's looking to you to keep the household together. Especially if parents aren't together, and parents are away, or things are happening. It's a lot to deal with. It's very stressful. That's why the whole me thinking about transferring thing came into play. So handling that, like I said, you have to grow up fast. You have to figure out how to be not just a student and a college athlete, but be an adult.
And like I said, you got to figure out how to take care, pay your bills and take care of your home. So my junior year going into my senior year, we tested the waters. I came back, I didn't have a place to live. I had to build my house, or my room.
And some of my teammates house, they had a house. They had a downstairs. I had to clean up the downstairs and make myself room. Went on Craigslist, found me a rug, found me a bed, a little TV stand. Had to put some sheetrock to make a ceiling, had to make a toilet. I had to do a lot of stuff, man, just to live. And once I figured out doing those type of thing, and go to therapy, makes basketball that much easier. I'm not one of the guys that didn't know how to manage my money. Didn't know how to take care of things, or keep an eye on things.
So college just helped me in that sense a ton, with becoming an adult. And not just be thrown into the fire of getting a bunch of money, and not know how to manage, know how to control, know how to be the head of the household. And it's this really, even then, it's still tough to say no to your parents.
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