Who would have thought the daggers would be Green?

This will be the 45^th time someone has been named Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals.

Should San Antonio complete its fifth championship season, the winner of the 2013 award would be unheralded shooting guard Danny Green. Not the half dozen other surefire Hall of Fame players in this series, but a man who has been released three times in his career.

Green would be the first Finals MVP who will not wind up in the Basketball Hall of Fame in more than 30 years. Chauncey Billups, the 2004 Finals MVP, will likely wind up in Springfield; but, it make take him awhile to get inducted.

Cedric Maxwell (1981) and Jo Jo White (1976) are the only two Finals MVPs that are not in the Hall of Fame.  Maxwell was an All-American in college, twice led the NBA in field goal percentage and won a pair of titles with the Celtics. White also won multiple titles with the Celtics and a seven-time All-Star.

Danny Green doesn’t have credentials like that.

What he has is a shot that is not missing.

“There have been a couple games where I have had some a couple heat flashes and made some, but nothing like this. Not for long stretches of time,” Green told NBA TV after Game 5.

He is someone who has scored more points in the NBA Finals (90) than in his first two seasons in the NBA (81). What’s so surprising is not the fact that Green set a NBA Finals record for 3-point field goals. It’s the fact Green is making 66 percent of those shots.

Who does that? Apparently, Danny Green.

Should San Antonio win Green would join a fraternity that includes Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and other basketball immortals. For context it’s an award that has been renamed after the greatest winner in North American sports — Bill Russell.

Russell’s 11^th, and final, championship came in 1969 when his Boston Celtics held off a furious rally from Los Angeles in Game 7 of that series. That year was also the first time a MVP award was given. Jerry West won Finals MVP in a losing effort after averaging 38 points and seven assists. Not even his 42 points in the deciding game were enough to save his Lakers from 108-106 loss.

All those winners and men whose accomplishments are the fabric of NBA history and Danny Green is on the cusp of joining them. His 24 points, on 53 percent shooting, Sunday night moved the Spurs one game away from a title.

“The numbers are nice, but they are not important,” Green said afterward. “The big thing for us is to continue to execute and give ourselves a chance to win. We want to win the next game. Tonight we had too many turnovers, but luckily some guys got hot.”

Sunday’s performance means Green will have at least one more opportunity to singe the net. This time it might be for a championship.