Danny Green was six seconds away from potentially becoming the most unlikely NBA Finals MVP ever.
But Ray Allen’s corner 3-pointer went in and the Heat soon retained their crown.
After Game 7 and the Spurs’ season ended, Green, the Long Island native who set a Finals record by making 27 3-pointers, spent the rest of the night in Miami with some friends, going to multiple locations.
The next day, a picture of the 26-year-old at one stop stole the Internet’s attention: Green in a club shaking hands and talking with friend and former Cavaliers teammate LeBron James. Even those close to Green questioned what they saw, wondering whether he was celebrating with the MVP who crushed the Spurs’ dreams only hours earlier.
“I’m a competitor and there’s no way in hell I’m going to go celebrate with the other team,” Green told The Post yesterday. “I said, ‘Congratulations, you’re still my guy, but I can’t party with you. I’ve got to get out of here. It’s not where I need to be. I’m going to catch up with you soon.’ And I left. Media blew it up.”
Green spoke while sitting in the bleachers of the Island Garden Basketball Arena in West Hempstead — preparing to host a week-long basketball camp for local youth.Green was instructed by a friend to meet him at that club, but the North Babylon native didn’t know any of the Heat players were there until he saw members of James’ Ohio entourage, who took him to the VIP section to see the King, whom he hadn’t congratulated following the game.
In the confusion and chaos following the Heat’s Game 7 win, Green congratulated each opposing player, but couldn’t find James. So at the club, James sought out Green, who played with him in Cleveland in 2009-10.
“He grabbed me and wanted to talk to me and we literally talked for a total of two minutes,” Green said. “People got a couple pictures. He said how proud he was of me, from being a rookie, and showed a lot of love. For him, to show me that respect and that love, that was good, but that’s not where I wanted to be. I wanted to be with my team celebrating, but that’s not how it ended up.”
Green spoke while sitting in the bleachers of the Island Garden Basketball Arena in West Hempstead — where he was hosting a week-long basketball camp for locak youths — and was still amazed at how much has happened since he began playing there as a 10-year-old.
The Finals loss still hurts, but Green is already thinking about next season, thinking about how he can expand his role and help Tim Duncan get one more ring.
But he doesn’t take his Finals success for granted. He has been cut multiple times, played in the D-League and played overseas. He knows nothing is a given. And he knows six seconds may be as close as he ever gets to a title.
“You’ve got to take advantage while you’re there because you never know if you’re going to get back to that point,” Green said. “We know how close we were. It [stinks] to know how close we were, to lose it all that quickly.”