A.C. Green is also known as ‘Iron Man’, because he played 1,192 straight games. In his entire 16-year NBA career, he only missed three games, playing in 1278 out of 1281 possible games(99.8%). He missed three straight games in his second season.
Green was part of the showtime Lakers, and was one of the team’s defensive anchors. But his biggest and hardest achievement came off the court.
Green is known as deeply religious, and while all of his teammates went out and had fun, as well as various sexual partners, Green remained abstinent – A.C Green began and ended his NBA career as a virgin.
Many of his former teammates sent escorts and other women to his hotel room on roadtrips, tempting him to compromise his morals. But Green never got weak. He just started praying loudly, causing an awkward moment.
“I am curious [about sex],” Green told Sports Illustrated in 1997. “But not curious enough to go to the violation point. I figure God created it, so it must be good. But he has created it to take place at a certain point of time—within the confines of marriage. If I’m going to live according to rules God laid out, then there are rules A through Z. There can’t be situational ethics.”
Off the court, Green was a very polite, young and humble man. A man of god. But as soon as he stepped foot on NBA hardwood, he changed, and became a beast, a monster, a punisher, and a champion.
Green promoted abstinence until marriage, and even wrote rap songs about it. Shortly after Green ended his NBA career, he married his now-wife Veronique, finally losing his virginity.
“It is definitely worth waiting,” Green told Good Morning America in 2002, just after celebrating his six-month wedding anniversary. “When you marry the right person at the right time you have no regrets. For me, I have nothing but smiles on my face.”
