OAKLAND, CALIF.—On the day in July when Danny Green found out he’d been traded from San Antonio to Toronto, he was neither shocked nor dismayed.
“No one was really safe (in San Antonio),” Green would say months later. “I’m a positive person.”
And really, from a basketball perspective, what was there to complain about? The more Green pondered the deal that sent him and Spurs teammate Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick, the more he came around to the idea that the Raptors were a legitimate championship contender. Eleven months later, with the Raptors a victory away from bringing the Larry O’Brien Trophy back to Toronto after Thursday’s Game 6 of the NBA Finals, it couldn’t be going much better.