'05 or '09 Championship... Which Team was Better? David Noel and Danny Green Debate

This question never gets old and it probably never will. There will never be one true answer but what do the players think? Danny Green and David Noel sound off on which team was better.

The age-old question, 'Who was the better championship team, 2005 or 2009?'

There is no possible right answer to this question because both teams represent something incredibly special within the Carolina Program. After an 8-20 season and the recent firing of Matt Doherty, the 2004-2005 team was a rebuild for the program and also a rebirth of confidence once lost. This team was incredibly tough with kids who played for two coaches but managed to gel together with a brotherhood that has lasted for 15 years. When interviewed, the team knew 2004 would be unique on multiple occasions because of the work put in and the commitment they made to each other. 

But is it possible that 2009 was one of the best teams ever assembled by Roy Williams? Tyler Hansbrough alone justifies that statement; he is the most decorated UNC player. The team had a 34-4 overall record and 13-3 in the ACC, swept Duke, No. 1 in The Associated Press' preseason Top 25 (they were the first unanimous No. 1 team), had the top six scorers, and coming off a school record of 36 wins and a final four appearance (2007-2008 season). Honestly, I don't think there's much to say after all of that. The boys were good. 

When it's all said and done, what makes Carolina Championships so special? Is it the coach? Players? Or the adversity? What about all of it? Check out David Noel and Danny Green's exchange on what makes each championship unique and why the 2005 team might have the edge. 

Transcript:

Quierra Luck:
One more question. This is for both of you. I need both of you to make the case for the best championship team.

Danny Green:
I knew this was going to come up honestly.

Quierra Luck:
People are asking for it so it had to.

Danny Green:
So honestly I had this debate. We had this debate as a group chat and I was like, you know, you're always biased toward your team. Then I saw some of their highlights, you know Jawad retweeted and posted the highlights and I'm like that team was stacked man. Excuse my language. They had a squad bro. We had Tyler. Tyler definitely got some people in foul trouble. We had some good wings. We had some guys that were good in the NBA and became pros. But they're a college team and those guys were NBA players at school already. And it would be a tough game for us, the 2009 team. 2017 was good, but I don't think they had anything with 2009/2005 team. But I think it'd be a hell of a game. Hell of a battle between '05, '09. I think talent wise they have more talent than us. I think the only way we get a win or have an edge, we had some depth, we had more depth and the only way we got an edge is if Tyler got people in foul trouble. So it all depends on how the game's officiated. But I think talent wise, those guys, they had a hell of a talented team and definitely more dogs on their team than we did. They were unreal man.

David Noel III:
And that's what I was going to say. I think the piece that it would come down to is, Wheezy, you will appreciate this. We need to just punk them. The '09 team, they were deep. They were very, very good. They ran through the tournament. So we understand that the optics of it looks like the '09 team was the best championship team that Carolina has pretty much ever had. But when you understand and you line us up like player to player, man to man, guard to guard, whatever the case may be, we had the most dogs. And in our little debate in our group chat, you can thank Hoots for this. Started a group chat with the '09 and '05 team and pretty much put everybody in it now. I agree Tyler would have been a problem. But I do think y'all have to understand who Sean was in this tournament bro.

Danny Green:
I've watched the clips. He was a bucket bro. He was a problem too.

David Noel III:
Right. And so, and the reason why we are national champions today is because Sean did exactly what you said you would hope Tyler would do. Sean got James Augustine from Illinois in foul trouble. James Augustine fouled out and only played like five minutes in that game. If Sean didn't play the way that he plays, we're not National Champions right now. But this is my piece. So line us up guard for guard. You got Ty Lawson versus Raymond Felton. Raymond Felton, and this, this was the point I was making in the chat too or, I've never said it but this was one of the points I was going to make. Everybody is saying like Ray couldn't guard Ty. That is absolutely false.

Danny Green:
No Ray was a very good defensive block.

David Noel III:
Ray is a dog. He's just as fast as Ty. Ty might be a little bit faster but Raymond Felton was Ty Lawson before Ty Lawson. So like that argument that Deon and them was making in the chat, y'all can kick rocks with that.

Danny Green:
I think the pace would have been great. It would've been great to see the pace. I think the only advantage we had, I said it was Tyler maybe foul trouble and we had some more consistent shooting on the outside. The game had changed so depending on how we shot the ball, it would have been, it would have been interesting. But I didn't mean to cut you off Dave. You can continue.

David Noel III:
Oh no, you're good. The piece of it is though y'all had better shooting. But again, coaching, we would have knew that going in. So you, Wayne, none of y'all would have been getting shots off because you got me guarding you, you got Jackie Manuel guarding you, you got Melma Scott, you got Rayshawn Terry. And the crazy part about and is that, and again I know how, you know, I guess the optics of it all but Rashad McCants. I get it.

Danny Green:
He was a special talent. That's why I said it determines, our shooting determined in the pace of the game. I think y'all would have wanted to slow it down, but if we sped that game up, we get more threes so we get better pace. And it'd been trouble for y'all. Time transition even though with Raymond guarding Ty. Y'all were good to transition too, but it's not in your favor if you don't shoot as many threes as we did. We shot more threes and big May could run, but I don't know if he was running the way, you know, Tyler and our bigs were running. But y'all had to while y'all have Marvin. No, those guys were beaters for sure. But it would have been interesting to see, because it's hard to stop three point shooting if the pace is fast. So it would have been an interesting game. It would have been a tough close game, but they said they were more talented. I just think we were probably a better, more disciplined, well oiled machine. And that's why we ran through the way we went through

David Noel III:
Well I guess end it off by saying we, we both won a championship so we'll just leave it at that. But at the end of the day I'm always rocking with '05 and I'm sure Danny is rocking with '09. But it was a pleasure watching y'all play in 2009, and it was a pleasure watching the 2017 team win it too. And I said this after the 2017 team won it. Their championship might've meant the most simply because the time that it was when we were going through the academic scandal and all of that kind of stuff and you had people questioning the integrity of North Carolina. And for those guys who go out there and get to the national championship game the year before, you lose three seniors and then you go back and you do it again. Like it was perfect for North Carolina basketball man. So much respect for 2005 who got coach Williams his first championship, much respect to 2009 who again look like they dominated the field unbelievably. It looks like the greatest championship team that Carolina has ever had. And then 2017 for kind of sustaining and rebuilding some brusque, almost like a Phoenix rising out of the fire of this academic scandal. And again, much respect to all the championship teams that Carolina has had.

Danny Green:
For sure. Man. For sure. It was definitely a pleasure watching 2017. And you guys. I was a senior in high school watching our 2005 team. It's been amazing. But obviously right now we're going through some tough times. Hopefully get that back on track and get the team back to where we need to be, but we'll just call it a draw between '05 '09. Best team ever come through Carolina. You know those two teams right there as number one. We have '05, '09. And then there's a couple other teams after that, but '05 '09 at number one.

Who was your favorite team and why?! Sound off below and let us know!