Lakers' Danny Green Describes The Dizzying 24 Hours That Determined The Future Of The Playoffs
It was a dizzying couple of days for the Lakers.
In a nearly 24-minute interview Friday, Danny Green described the hectic two days that determined the fate of the NBA playoffs.
It all started Wednesday afternoon when the Milwaukee Bucks decided to stay in their locker room for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic in protest of the Jacob Blake shooting.
Many of the Lakers players were in bed when they heard the news.
"We went from about to play a game at 9 p.m., to waking up in the middle of a nap, people banging on our doors, saying we have an emergency meeting," Green said. "Waking up in the middle of a nap not knowing what the hell is going on and that we’re probably not going to play."
The Lakers supported the Bucks. But what was next? What was the plan?
All three NBA games were postponed Wednesday and the players decided to hold a meeting at 8 p.m. that evening to discuss whether to scrap the postseason or keep playing.
"Certain teams were for it, certain teams weren’t," Green said. "Certain teams were saying they weren’t for it, and next thing they changed their mind. It went back and forth with different parties."
The meeting ended with the Lakers and Clippers voting to stop playing. After three hours, LeBron James, the face of the league, made the call.
"He’s our leader, he made a decision for us, and we were behind him regardless of what that was," Green said.
Green didn't want to speak for James, but he provided a window into what he was thinking in that moment.
"You could tell he was kind of in a place where he was fighting with his mind and his heart," Green said. "His heart was in one place, his mind was in another. And you could just tell that the bubble is getting not just to him, but to everybody."
Green added that a lot of reports that came out of that meeting weren't accurate.
"I’ve heard many different stories," Green said. "'LeBron said this, LeBron did that. So and so said this, so and so said that.' Which is, I think some of it, most of it, was untrue."
No one got much sleep that night.
The Lakers kept talking among themselves and to other teams.
"We were always with the majority most of the time," Green said. "It wasn’t like we were trying to make decisions for the league, like, ‘Everybody else said yes, we’re saying no.’ That’s not how it was."
This much is for sure.
The players were under a huge amount of pressure.
They had already been living in a pressure cooker of sorts, confined to a bubble away from their families for nearly two months amid a global pandemic and widespread social unrest.
And after another Black man was shot in 2020 at the hands of police officers, the players felt as though they needed to do something.
They felt the weight of the world on their shoulders.
"It’s not our job to really save the world, even though we’re trying to," Green said. "We’re trying to do our best, we know we’re at the forefront. We’re leading. Whatever we do, people follow in suit. So we’re trying our best to be both, even though we’re not politicians."
Green said it was an incredibly intense evening, and the players couldn't have been expected to come up with a solution in such a short amount of time.
The players reconvened Thursday and eventually voted to resume the season.
"It’s not something that was going to happen overnight," Green said. "We knew that. And Bron knew that. So for them to think that we were going to get everything done that night was unrealistic, I think. But it wasn’t as crazy as everybody made it seem. The details aren’t as drastic as the things you heard."
Later Thursday, players met with team owners to issue a set of demands. Green said they were "very receptive."
NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts released a joint statement Friday in which they agreed to establish a social justice coalition, work to convert arenas into voting centers and include advertising spots that promote "greater civic engagement" during all playoff games.
"I think some great things are happening," Green said. "And it was good to have our owners have our back."
It's been an unprecedented season for the Lakers, starting with drama during their preseason trip to China after Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of Hong Kong protestors, followed by profound grief after Kobe Bryant's death in January, followed by confusion and fear after the season was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, followed by anger after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in May.
Then Wednesday happened.
"We have a PHD in handling adversity by now," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. "We've been through a lot this year."
The Lakers are in the middle of their first playoff appearance in seven years and are trying to win their first championship in a decade, but Green said they were willing to walk away from it all.
They want social justice more than anything.
"We’re going to be Black men forever," Green said. "And that’s not going to ever change. So, if it comes down to winning a championship or doing something better for people or for our communities, we’re going to pick that first. And if we need to make a powerful statement with walking away and we felt that was the best thing to do, then we would do that."
Ultimately, the players decided that the best way to achieve their goals would be together in Florida.
They can grow their platforms, speak in front of national television audiences and fight for a common cause.
It was a tense couple of days.
But they're fighting for something much larger than themselves.
"When we’re divided, we’re not as strong," he said.
