They make it look so easy but behind the scenes, there's so much more to being a student-athlete than winning games. Danny Green gives us a glimpse of that life.
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00:00 And instead of organizations top, top not so.
00:03 All you have to focus on is just playing basketball and having fun and winning games.
00:07 Good stuff, man.
00:09 Can you hear me?
00:10 Yeah, we hear you now.
00:11 Okay, awesome.
00:12 So my question for Danny would be the struggle that you were talking about.
00:17 Talk about how difficult it is or can be difficult for a student athlete, not only to be a student, an athlete, but also deal with stuff at home.
00:28 Like you're not just, you're performing consistently and don't really have time to really deal with stuff going on personally.
00:34 Yeah, man, especially your first year, your freshman year is probably the toughest with adjusting to going to class, doing study hall, and then practice and focusing on basketball at the same time.
00:44 That's pretty much, you weren't there for your main priority, basketball, but you still have to focus on school and everything else, which is a top priority.
00:52 And then dealing with home. And a lot of people don't understand this and know this, but you become the head of the household sooner than you expect and sooner than you want to.
01:00 And a lot of times that's before you even make it to the league.
01:03 A lot of times, you become the head of the household, maybe not right away, but in your second or third year, maybe third or fourth year of college, everybody's looking to you to keep the household together.
01:15 Especially if parents aren't together and parents are away and things are happening.
01:18 It's a lot to deal with. It's very stressful.
01:20 And that's why the whole me thinking about transfer thing came into play.
01:24 So handling that, you have to grow fast. You have to figure out how to, big dog, there he is, big dog.
01:31 You got to figure out how to be not just a student and a college athlete, but be an adult.
01:35 And you have to figure out how to, you know, take care of you, pay your bills and take care of your home.
01:39 So my junior year going into my senior year, we tested water. I came back, I didn't have a place to live.
01:44 I had to build my house or my room and some of my teammates' house. They had a house, they had a downstairs.
01:49 I had to clean out the downstairs and make myself a room on a Craigslist.
01:52 Found me a rug, found me a bed, a little TV stand. Had to put some sheetrock to make a ceiling.
01:58 Had to make a toilet. You know, we had to do a lot of stuff, man, just to live.
02:02 And once I figured out doing those type of things, I figured, oh, things, basketball, that much easier.
02:11 But when I came into this job, I'm not one of those guys that didn't know how to manage my money,
02:15 didn't know how to take care of things and keep an eye on things.
02:17 So college has helped me in that sense a ton, becoming an adult and not just being thrown into the fire of getting a bunch of money,
02:23 not knowing how to manage, not knowing how to control, not knowing how to be the head of the household.
02:26 And it's really, even then, it's still tough to say no to your parents.
02:30 But once you figure it out, start doing it, you get used to it.
02:34 And, you know, it's easy now. So you're like, nah, we're not doing that.
02:37 But then you still you got to find ways to still spoil them, treat them nicely.
02:41 And everyone around you want to make sure that they get a chance to experience this as well.
02:44 But it's not worth it. It's not even great.
02:47 If you can't have your family and close ones experience the things that you experience, there's no real point in doing it.
02:53 It's fun and all, but it's not as fun without being on your side.
02:57 But yeah, those three things of trying to be that, it takes a lot of time.
03:01 It takes maybe a year or two, but it's three years to figure out how to balance those three.
03:09 I never do figure out. That's why I'm still struggling to this day.
03:12 But it took me a lot of years to mature and figure out how to balance all three of those things on the court, off the court and at home,
03:17 which was not close at all in New York. And still doing it each year.
03:21 You still figure out ways to try to make things easier, not just on them, but for yourself.
03:25 How many tickets am I going to buy this year? How many people am I going to say no to?
03:28 I'm only buying this year. I'm not buying, you know, because that costs you more than anything.
03:32 People don't understand. You get two tickets on the road, you know, four, three or four at home and everything else you got to buy.
03:37 So let me get a ticket. I'm going to take care of everybody.
03:39 Everybody experiences it. But then you have to figure out how to cut back on bills, cut back on,
03:42 especially if you move to a city like Los Angeles, where taxes are a little higher, things are a little more expensive.
03:47 You're trying to figure out each day, each month, each week, how to cut back on everything.
03:52 Still to this day, I'm still trying to figure that out and mature.
03:54 But I've got it down pretty well. Every experience, every year is a new one.
03:59 Man, that is a heck of an answer, man. I'm going to go.
04:05 As you all see, I'm rocking my Southern Durham gear.
04:10 Someone mentioned that actually.
04:12 What'd you say?
04:14 Someone mentioned that you were rocking a Southern Durham sweatshirt.
04:18 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, man, I'm Southern Durham through and through.
04:21 They gave me my first opportunity to be a coach. And Danny was a huge part of that.
04:26 Because, you know, when I first got the job, we talked about, you know,
04:32 what things I wanted to do with the program and all that kind of stuff.
04:35 So I reached out to a lot of Carolina alums.
04:38 And Danny was one of the guys that stepped up huge.
04:42 And, you know, I hit him for, I want to say he got his bags one year.
04:49 The next year he even sent just shoes that I could give to the players.
04:52 They were only 14. So most of my players get to wear them.
04:55 But I gave out quite a few shoes, man.
04:59 So one, I want to say thank you, D.G., for all that you've done for not only your family,
05:06 but your extended family.
05:12 I'll kind of go a little off key here and not make it so personal.
05:18 But let me ask you this question.
05:20 What's the difference here from playing in LA versus Toronto?
05:30 Oh, man. I feel like.