Kyrie Irving is sparking a massive debate all across the NBA thanks to his stance on whether or not players should return to the court next month. Irving believes that the social justice movements across the country are too important right now and that it would be better for players to focus their attention on that. He feels as though basketball is too much of a distraction and that it would ultimately divert people away from all of the progress that is being made.

Danny Green of the Los Angeles Lakers seems to disagree with Kyrie. While speaking to Mark Medina of USA Today, Green said that it is possible for players to speak on social issues while also focusing their attention on playing games. Green personally feels as though it would be more powerful if players were to protest while playing as it would make use of the massive platform the NBA creates.

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“The biggest thing is to continue to move forward,” Green said. “When we do go to Orlando, the media outlets and playing on that stage if you use it wisely the right way you can push forward and can continue the movement even in a better forum.”

It seems as though the players are divided right now with 60 percent wanting to play and the other 40 percent urging against it. Over the coming weeks, we could see a real rift as the start date of July 30th approaches.

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Ever since Kobe Bryant's tragic passing, there have been some incredible stories going around about Kobe and just how funny and great of a person he was. While he could be ruthless with his teammates, he was always doing it in good fun, while also providing an edge to show people that he was very serious about winning championships.

Recently, Jeremy Lin, who played with Kobe during the 2014-2015 season, told a story on Danny Green's podcast about just how dry Kobe's sense of humor was. As he explains, Kobe once showed up to practice just to pour salt in the wounds of those who were supposedly on the trading block. Of course, this occurred one day before the deadline.

Over the course of his career, we’ve known Metta World Peace to be one of the toughest defenders to ever step on a basketball court. He’s used several different monikers, starting off his playing career as Ron Artest, his given name, and changing it to Metta World Peace before moving to China and allegedly changing it again to Panda Friend. This week, he spoke about his eccentric history of name changes with Danny Green on the baller’s podcast Inside the Green Room with Danny Green, also touching on his friendship with Kobe Bryant and his championship legacy with the Lakers.

During the sit-down talk, Metta revealed to the world that he has officially dropped World Peace from his name. Now, he goes by a combination of his wife’s last name and his original surname.

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“My name now is ‘Metta Sandiford-Artest.’ I actually took my wife’s last and added it to mine,” said the 40-year-old. He notes that he was pretty embarrassed to hop on the court for the first time after switching his name to Metta World Peace from Ron Artest, hesitating to remove his warm-up gear and show off the backside of his jersey. He also tells Green that he never actually legally adopted the Panda Friend moniker, but he just went with the reports saying he did.

Check out the name talk at the 41:40 spot below.

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Numerous incredible players have laced up for the Los Angeles Lakers over the years. They have some pretty incredible names hanging from the rafters and have at least three players you could put on the NBA Mount Rushmore. It’s a franchise that will continue to boast legendary for years to come. A couple of the team’s current players, Dwight Howard and Danny Green, recently spoke to Taylor Rooks for her Bleacher Report show, Take It There. 

During the episode, Howard and Green were asked to speak about some of the Lakers legends and which guys would end up on their all-time Lakers starting five. Howard’s picks were all pretty obvious although Green certainly came in with some independent thought.

“I’ll take a different route,” Green said. “I’m gonna go with Magic at one, Kobe at two, LeBron at three, A.D. (Anthony Davis) at four, and a lot of people aren’t going to like this, but I’m going to go with Big Game James (James Worthy) at five.”

“At point guard, Magic Johnson,” Howard explained. “Two guard, Kobe Bryant. Three, I gotta go LeBron (James). Four, Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal). Five is Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar).

Both of these starting fives would dominate in any era so you can’t be mad at Green for his alternative way of thinking. With these answers in mind, let us know what players you would pick for your all-time Lakers starting five.

Kobe Bryant’s passing alongside his daughter in a helicopter crash came as a shocking and unexpected tragedy. Bryant is one of the best players in NBA history and continues to be regarded as such, even in passing. As you can imagine, players on the Los Angeles Lakers were absolutely shocked when they heard the news and were visibly devasted over the loss of one of the game’s biggest legends. In fact, the players found out about the tragedy while flying home from a road trip.

During the latest episode of Danny Green’s podcast, Lakers player Quinn Cook spoke about finding out about Kobe’s passing and how the mood on the plane was incredibly sad.

“I look in front of me and I just see LeBron and AD and Randy and AB, Dwight — everybody was just crushed,” Cook said before describing the prayer LeBron James led on the plane. “[It] was very, very, very, powerful. And, after that, like Danny will tell you, I was crushed. I was crying the whole flight. I was absolutely destroyed.”

Cook later spoke about how the team is still going through the trauma of Kobe’s loss but the practices and games are helping them get through everything. It’s clear the Lakers are a team of brothers and they are doing everything in their power to honor Kobe’s legacy.