In fifteen National Basketball Association (NBA) seasons, A.C. Green has missed just three games, despite health and injury concerns. ‘I've had teeth knocked out, I've had muscle cramps, a sprained ankle, deep bruises, a broken thumb,’ he says. Nevertheless Green did his job, putting intrinsic qualities to the forefront: durability, reliability, commitment to hard work and a commitment to God.

As a result, A.C. Green has become professional basketball’s all-time Iron Man. The Lakers’ veteran ran onto the court for his 1042nd consecutive game against the New Jersey Nets on November 26, 1999, breaking Ron Boone’s record. Boone played 662 consecutive games in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and 379 in the NBA, from 1968 to 1981.

Fans had long suspected that Green’s character and determination would see him become the alltime Iron Man, watching milestones pass along the way. On November 20, 1997, Green earned the NBA's record with his 907th consecutive game, surpassing Randy Smith’s mark set from 1972 to 1983.

Immediately after the opening tip-off, the game was halted for a brief ceremony, with a complete acknowledgement of the feat commemorated at half time. Green was presented the game ball, a one-of-a-kind ` A.C. Green Iron Man' leather jacket, and a Baltimore Orioles jersey from baseball's Iron Man, Cal Ripkin, Jr, who said, ‘He's a man of character, but also a man with extreme heart.’

The man who last missed a game when Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show, was finally in the spotlight, recognised for his contributions to his teams and the game as a whole. Sports writer, Alon Marcovici, wrote on the night of the accomplishment, ` Green received more attention leading up to today than perhaps in all of his 907 games combined. But it's well-deserved.'

` It’s been a long time coming,’ A.C. added. ‘It means a great deal, I really hope everyone can somehow, some way, feel a part of these years of hard work and dedication to my job. It feels great. It's an awesome feeling, but that's a poor choice of words. It's an understatement. I just know it's a part of my destiny being fulfilled. I don't pursue records, I just love playing the game.’

Throughout his career, Green has been careful not to let his profile affect his character. ‘From high school to college to the pros, I've never perceived myself as a star at any level in athletic competition,’ he says. ‘I've always felt that the beginning of the end as an athlete at this level is when you perceive yourself as greater than you are. My mother always told me to remember where you came from.’

Green explains how he has been able to become an Iron Man: ‘God has played a big part in this whole run of consecutive games. There have been a lot of days out there that I don't know how I made it, as far as ailments throughout the day, or nagging injuries throughout the season. You go through some bad spells and sometimes you can do all the preparations - stretching, weight lifting, seeing doctors and taking medicine - but that just doesn't seem like it's enough at times… Never allow yourself to take a day off or succumb to what your body tells you.’

Green is not a brute strength kind of player. He uses a ratio of sixty-percent spirit, thirty-percent mind, and ten-percent body to account for his longevity in the demanding sport. The day of his 907th game was spent with his parents and other family and at his church. `God plays an important part in my life,' says the veteran. `I think it's nothing short of the hand of God that has been over my life for the last seventeen years that ushered the streak on course. My faith has not only helped me try to be the best person off the court, but also to have the goal to please Jesus Christ on the court - with the way I play or the way I prepare myself for the game. Sometimes I haven't known how I could have done it with the way my body feels, so it has to be divine influence.’

A.C. – whose initials don't stand for anything - also credits the coaches who have let him play. The forward played his first eight seasons with the Lakers, coached by Pat Riley, under whom he last sat out a game on November 18, 1986. After that, the games-played streak stretched through the Lakers’ back-to-back championships in 1987 and 1988, where Green became known as the `enforcer.' He was also named to the Western Conference NBA All-Star team as a starter in 1990.

In September 1993, Green joined the Phoenix Suns as a free agent, garnering his career’s best statistics, averaging 14.7 points per game and 9.2 rebounds. Two season’s later he played one of his finest games, scoring twenty-nine points and pulling down twenty rebounds against the Clippers on January 9. That season he also broke the 10,000 point barrier against the Toronto Raptors, becoming one of only ten active players to reach 10,000 points and 7,000 rebounds.

During the following season, Green was traded to the Dallas Mavericks where his consistent contributions kept his consecutive games streak extending. With the team he brought up his 1000th straight game in a victory over Vancouver on March 13, 1999. After the game Dallas coach Don Nelson said, 'A thousand games in our league is like going to the moon and back.'

That year A.C. was traded back to the L.A. Lakers, where his career began in 1985. Since those early days, in the regular season and playoffs, Green has tallied over 13,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 1,000 steals, 500 blocked shots, and 1,300 games.

The move to L.A. was just at the right time, the Lakers returning to glory days of when Green was last with the club. On the back of Shaquille O’Neal, the team surged through the 1999-2000 season and playoffs, taking the championship finals against the Indiana Pacers 116-111 in Game 6. The win was Green’s third of his career, all of them with the Lakers.

“It's a real blessing,” the excited champion said after the game. “I have some great teammates. This whole year has been a lot of fun. It's just a wonderful feeling. It's the result of a whole year of work. It's why you play this game, to get a hold of this trophy. It's a great thing. I thank God for it. I thank my teammates and the coaching staff. It's a real special group of guys.”

In preparing his mind, Green understands that intensity is important. He never succumbed to the thoughts that he could sit out because he wasn't needed or because his body was telling him to. There were plenty of reasons and excuses that he could have used to miss a game, but his plan has always been to go out and contribute. This was so even during a year or so with the Lakers when he was kneed continuously in his thighs during practice, to the point of wearing thigh pads for protection to the deep bruises. Or through the 1995-1996 season when he wore a protective face mask for twelve games after an elbow from a New York Knicks player knocked out one his bottom front teeth and loosened another which he later pulled out himself in the locker room. Or the time he got a crick in his neck that lasted right up until game time, loosening just in time. Or through the most difficult injury he has ever had to play with, lower back spasms.

Green is by nature low-key, the kind of person who can take or leave the spotlight. He may be aggressive on the court, but his desire is to be a man of integrity. He understands the Bible's teaching on respecting those in authority and has submitted to coaches who were not Christian as well as those who are, like Paul Westphal who he was under in Phoenix. Green has been determined to live a totally different lifestyle - not the stereotypical athlete - on and off the hardwood.

One of his Phoenix Sun's teammates, Kevin Johnson remembers when Green was elbowed in the face. 'Just take his reaction when that happened,' he says. 'A.C. just looked at the guy, picked up his tooth and walked out. Nobody in his right mind would react in such a calm manner.'

A.C.'s character stems from his Christian upbringing. `I was very religious when growing up in Portland, Oregon,' Green concedes. As a high school All-American player, he went to church and made good grades, too. But as he headed to Oregon State University, he began to realise that being good just to please people wasn't adequate.

`I had a lot of things going for me,' says Green. `I was popular, but very empty inside. My church attendance was consistent, but was doing nothing for me personally. I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I began to see that going to heaven had nothing to do with being good and I had been deceived in this like so many others.' On August 2, 1981 Green went to church with his friends and heard the minister ask, `Do you want to go to heaven?' It was the question on his mind.

‘As the minister explained that Christ was the way to heaven - that he came to die on the cross for the sins of everyone and was raised from the dead to provide eternal life for all who believed - I knew I had to make a decision. It was definitely a crossroad in my life.’

‘Did I want to be committed to Jesus - to not be one who seeks to please people, but please God? There were only 150 people in the church, but that day God targeted me and I really was born again - as John 3:3 says every person should be. That's the most exciting thing that has happened in my life so far. I'm a Christian fella who loves God and just tries to live by his rules and principles daily.’

This decision has indirectly got Green a lot of media coverage over the years. While in college he drew attention not only for his playing abilities but also for protesting the sale of Playboy at the campus bookstore, even though the magazine was heralding him as an All-American. After this incident, as A.C. would take free throw shots during a game, the opposition supporters would hold up centrefolds behind the backboard.

Green has spent a lot of time off the court showing a tender side to many across the world. He has served as a director for Challenge for Christ, an organisation dedicated to train, build and develop professional and college athletes. `We want to help them gain a sense of substance, not just talk. They must know what they are talking about and know how to minister to others,' he says. `I want to see athletes who won't be egotistical, but submissive to Jesus. That's where the real power comes from.'

The A.C. Green Youth Foundation oversees a number of projects, such as an after-school program with a built-in obligation that parents become involved. Building a strong family structure incorporating family values and bonding is important to Green, who loves kids and wants them to be identified with something positive. His Champions through Christ ministry teaches young people to serve God with a whole heart.

In the midst of frequent media coverage on the sexual exploits of NBA players, Green's Foundation presents a positive alternative. Athletes for Abstinence brought together well-known athletes from the National Football League and the NBA, and produced a video, It Ain't Worth It, with teens and medical experts to get across the message that sexual abstinence is possible and preferable. The biblical approach is what Green wants the young people to hear. `Wait until marriage before you start having sex. Or, if you have already started, stop and wait until marriage.'

The Foundation sponsors a free basketball camp that sees 100 young teenagers learn basketball each year. In the afternoons, the kids are taken on field trips to different companies to increase their awareness of the job market. Again, the family is included in the award ceremony to help define and build up the family structure.

Green plans to continue with his work with youth after his playing career is over. He also looks forward to getting back to Portland, watching his nephews play as well as some other young people he's got to know. He's not in the least interested in coaching.

For now, he is playing with all the same hard-driving, body checking enthusiasm as before. Many question if anyone else can ever break his Iron Man record. Hersey Hawkins of Seattle is closest, around five hundred games behind, so it looks as if Green's record will stand for some time.

`I've said all along that this wasn't necessarily a major goal,' says Green. `My goal is to play every game. Winning the championship was a goal. But I admit this running streak is right up there with the championship years!'

Yet, despite his undoubted success on the court, this is not the source of his self-worth. He is basketball’s Iron Man, but that is not what defines him. Nor is it his work amongst youth, his involvement in team Bible studies or his speeches to community groups. Rather his personal identity is shaped by a single decision: the choice to accept Christ and grow in likeness to him. It is his personal relationship with God that is central to who he is and what drives him in all his endeavours, both on and off the court. It is his iron faith that has shaped this pre-eminent performer.

This chapter was written with Jennie Chandler from New Dawn International Ministries, Inc., 363 S. Cedar Lane, Chickamauga, GA 30707. Used by permission. All rights reserved.