Sixers’ Danny Green on social injustice: ‘You’ve got to have those conversations.’

In the aftermath of Saturday’s 120-111 loss at Phoenix, 76ers swingman Danny Green was answering questions on a postgame Zoom interview about his team’s second straight defeat when the subject suddenly changed.

From why the Sixers allowed Phoenix to shoot 60.8% for the game, or why Devin Booker was able to score 36 points, Green was then asked a question that took him away from the basketball court.

Yet Green was the right person to ask this, a 33-year-old three-time NBA champion, who is a team leader in basketball and in life.

Green is averaging 8.7 points as a starter, but his contributions go beyond the stat sheet. Green is looked up to as one of the NBA’s voices of reason. Even though it’s his first season with the Sixers after helping the Los Angeles Lakers win last season’s NBA title, he has gained immediate respect in his new locker room.

Many of the young players have talked about how much they have learned from him.

With February being Black History Month, Green was asked, after such a volatile 2020, what were some of the lessons he learned in regard to social injustice issues and how he could reflect on it, particularly during this month.

“There is so much, man, especially this last year, I have had no choice,” Green said. “My dad, who was a history major, a history teacher taught me a lot.”

So Green knew that this was a year especially that he couldn’t sit on the sidelines when issues of social injustice were raised.

“I think all of us had no choice but to step up to be a vocal platform for our communities, of what kind of changes we want,” Green said. “So I have learned a lot about history, I learned a lot about how it repeats itself, and it’s crazy that nothing is impossible seeing the times we live in now, anything is possible, anything can happen.”

One thing that Green has learned is that discussing the issues is extremely important, no matter how difficult it may be

“We are talking about it day to day, having uncomfortable conversations with people, as much as you want to avoid it, or try to avoid it is necessary,” he said.

So he will continue to discuss the issues with others.

“You’ve got to have those conversations, you’ve got to enlighten and educate your friends and family, people around you, because a lot of them don’t know and you have known these people for so long and you don’t realize until something like this happens,” Green said. “So I guess the biggest thing that I tried to implement or take away from it is to continue to have the conversation, even though it is uncomfortable, continue to educate each other, and continue to push and find ways to make our world, our place, our communities better.”

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