Written by BILL BUMGARNER
Composed for the LSWA
Most of the time, achieving great success over an extended period of time is necessary to be inducted into an athletic Hall of Fame.
As a member of the Class of 2025, Danny Granger’s basketball career, which started at Grace King High School in Metairie and culminated in an incredible 10-year NBA career, undoubtedly met all the requirements for his induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
For the June 26–28 Induction Celebration, he is traveling to Natchitoches. For details on the event, go to LaSportsHall.com.
Granger carries with him an amazing resume that shows his success at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels of basketball competition.
However, despite his enthusiasm for the game, it wasn’t his favorite.
He acknowledged that football was actually his favorite sport. However, I consider myself fortunate to have played basketball for most of my childhood. Passing the ball to other players, which kept me on the court, seemed to be one of my strong points. I was always motivated to improve by the game. Playing basketball felt unreal to me.
According to former Grace King head coach Jeryl Fischtziur, he was very coachable. He occasionally passed the ball to teammates too frequently. All he wanted was for other people to play the game.
He noted that practice was when he put forth the most effort. He would be late and arrive early.
Granger, who was 6′ 8″, was big enough to play center in high school and had the skill to shoot from beyond the forward position.
Prior to moving on to the next level, he averaged 24.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 5.5 blocks per game and was preseason nominated for the coveted McDonald’s All-American team entering his senior year.
Yale was his first pick for a college, but the Ivy League institution did not provide the civil engineering major he had in mind.
As a result, he and his teammate Michael Suggs decided to attend Bradley University for two years before deciding to transfer to the University of New Mexico well in advance of the transfer portal.
Granger made the most of his strong interior presence thanks to his robust 230-pound body, averaging over 7.0 rebounds per game across his four NCAA seasons.
However, he was also able to use his scoring prowess to influence games.
He averaged 19.5 and 18.8 points per game during his two seasons at New Mexico after scoring 19.2 points per game as a sophomore at Bradley.
Granger shot 49.6% from the floor, including 36.6% from beyond the 3-point line, and concluded his 95-game career with a 16.7 average. Granger averaged in double figures during each of his four collegiate seasons. In the postseason, he scored 21.6 points per game on average.
Granger was selected by the Indiana Pacers in the first round (17th overall) of the 2005 NBA Draft.
He participated in ten NBA seasons overall, spending eight of those seasons as a star for the Pacers (2006–14). He was selected to the All-Star team in 2009, and he concluded his career with the Miami Heat (2015) and Los Angeles Clippers (2014).
Granger’s professional career started off a little slowly, but he quickly established himself as a mainstay in the Pacers lineup as a small forward.
Granger set a course that would make him one of the team’s rising stars over the following few seasons after averaging a meager 7.5 points as a rookie in the 2005–06 season while playing with well-established, high-scoring veterans like Stephen Jackson, Peja Stojakovic, Ron Artest, and Jermaine O Neal.
Granger’s star rose swiftly after he put in a lot of effort and agreed to perform the part that was requested. This required being a selfless teammate and acting morally both on and off the court.
Mike Wells, a former columnist who served as the Pacers beat writer while Granger was a member of the team, was pleased by a number of things.
According to Wells, the most significant factor was Granger’s choice to follow the more experienced players on the court rather than off, during a period when certain Pacers were being featured in the media and on television for the wrong reasons.
According to Wells, Danny was constantly out there honing his shooting skills with the other perimeter players before practice and after practice.
Granger increased his scoring average by over five points in each of the following three seasons, so it was evident.
The result of that run was a career-high 25.8 points in the 2008–09 campaign. He was selected as a starter for the Eastern Conference all-star squad that year.
According to Wells, he remembered the night Granger, in the opinion of then-Pacers coach Jim O. Brien, essentially sealed his spot in the all-star game.
On January 7, 2009, Granger sank a 3-pointer from 27 feet out with 0.2 seconds remaining to help his team defeat the Phoenix Suns 113-110 on the road. According to Wells, he quickly filed his piece and headed to O Brien’s press conference.
Wells remarked, “I don’t recall if these were his exact words,” but Jim added, “Danny is officially an all-star.” He is an all-star, but many have been wondering if he was.
Granger finished with 37 points, 13 of 27 from the field, 5 of 11 from outside the arc, five rebounds, six assists, and four steals that evening. With 34.9 seconds left, he made a 20-foot jumper to tie the game at 110-all.
The remainder of that season was as fruitful.
Granger was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player after being the first Pacers player to average over 25 points per game since the 1976–77 campaign.
Over the following three seasons, he averaged 24.1, 20.5, and 18.7 points per game, further boosting his reputation and demonstrating his value as a volume scorer.
Granger averaged 21.6 points and 5.4 rebounds in 350 games throughout the five-year period from 2008 to 2012, earning him recognition as one of the league’s best players. He became a fan favorite in Indianapolis and one of the Pacers’ more dependable players as a result.
When he developed into a superb two-way player with defensive intensity that matched his offensive prowess, the rest of the league began to pay attention as well.
Granger had little support as his career took off after the Pacers moved Artest to the Sacramento Kings halfway through his rookie campaign and O Neal’s injuries began to take a toll.
He was prepared, but injuries struck after a successful six-year run.
Granger’s career was effectively ended by foot, knee, and calf problems that limited him to 76 games with only eight starts over the following three seasons.
Granger made his season debut on December 20, 2013, after missing the first 25 games of what ended up being his final season with the Pacers due to a calf injury.
The audience yelled his name after he made his first basket of the evening, a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter in a rout of the Houston Rockets, and he came into the game to a standing ovation in the first quarter.
Granger, who was sitting courtside for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse last month, received a thunderous applause from Pacers supporters when he was displayed on the arena’s video screens.
Granger, who played in 544 games with 425 starts for the Pacers this season, was second in both 3-point attempts (2,526) and made 3-pointers (964) and was still sixth in team history in terms of scoring (9,571 points).
Paul George, a consistent NBA All-Star, was questioned in 2020 about how outstanding Granger could have been if injuries hadn’t ended his career at age 31. During George’s first four seasons in the NBA, he and Granger were teammates.
George said, “Dude, Grange was a bucket.” Grange could handle the best of them; he was a bucket. He simply had a knack for scoring.
He knew how to play, but it wasn’t skill work. He was skilled at getting a bucket. Just seeing Danny from a distance taught me a lot. He was simply a decent man in every way.
Though he was a highly-decorated player in the college and pro ranks, Granger said his latest honor really resonates.
“It was wonderful news when I received the call regarding the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame,” he stated. It is an honor to get this induction.
Granger, 42, lives with his wife Dianna and their three kids in Scottsdale, Arizona. He works as a construction worker for his father, Danny Sr., and his high school classmate, Suggs.
According to Danny Jr., Danny Sr. is like a brother to him. We’re really close. He learned how to do building on his own. I consider myself fortunate to have had a job that allowed me to do what I liked and earn millions of dollars.
My life has been quite the journey.
And he has been excellent at everything.
________________________________________________________
