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Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The CRITERIA are quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We continue our countdown with:
No. 40: Danny Green
Green begins our list even though he didn’t have a great statistical career at UNC nor has he had a great statistical career in the NBA. But Green’s game and career are about more than just stats. He is a winner, a champion at Carolina in 2009 and three times in the NBA
At Carolina, Green was a regular in the rotation as a freshman and sophomore, averaging 15.3 and 13.6 minutes, respectively. His playing time increased to 22.3 minutes as a junior, and he improved his output to 11.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. But he didn’t become a starter until his senior campaign, in part because Marcus Ginyard was injured during the preseason.
Yet, one can make a strong argument that Green taking over that spot and playing nearly 28 minutes per game was the missing link the Tar Heels needed to not just win a national championship but become a great college team. He gave the Heels a needed perimeter threat, and was dead-on at times, hitting 41.8 percent on the season averaging 13.2 points per game.
In addition, Green was a fantastic defensive player, both on and off the ball. In fact, he is one of the best off-the-ball defenders Roy Williams coached at Carolina. He could rebound, dish, ran the floor exceptionally well (the posterizing Greg Paulus will forever live in Tar Heelia), and he was simply a winner.
UNC won two ACC Tournament championships, three regular season titles, and went 14-3 in the NCAA Tournament in Green’s career, reaching two Final Fours, a third Elite Eight, winning the whole thing in 2009. Plus, he was the player most responsible for starting the dancing craze during “Jump Around” before the opening tip at home games.
As a pro, it took Green a few years to catch on in the NBA, but he eventually carved out a role as a shooter, defender, and role player in high demand. In 13 NBA seasons, Green has averaged 25.3 minutes in 819 regular season NBA games, scoring 8.7 points. And hitting 39.9 percent of his three-pointers.
He has won three NBA championships with three different organizations – San Antonio Spurs in 2014, Toronto Raptors in 2019, and Los Angles Lakers in 2020 – and been on other teams that advanced far in the playoffs. He is a hired hand for teams that want to win titles or make serious pushes for them, and that has helped earn him a spot on this list.
On top of that, Green has earned nearly $98 million in salary, not including playoff money and endorsements.
