Say this for Anthony Davis: When his tenure ends with an NBA team, it’s usually a memorable event.
The 10-time All-Star appeared on “The Draymond Green Show” hosted by the Golden State Warriors star in an episode released Wednesday, with plenty to discuss. Most notably, he had some grievances to air about the end of his tenures with both the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans.
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Before this week, Davis had been fairly diplomatic about the shocking trade that sent him to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Luka Dončić. That deal ended up not working out on his end, as injuries caused him to play only 29 games with Dallas across two partial seasons before getting traded to the Washington Wizards.
With the Lakers, Davis had been a mostly effective co-star to LeBron James and a champion in 2020. He felt he deserved better from the team:
“From the business standpoint, I can’t be mad. But, like, why? “I just couldn’t fathom, I couldn’t understand it. And nobody told me nothing. Nobody said a thing to me. So you just catch me off guard, like, yeah, ‘You traded to Dallas.’
“That’s what I couldn’t get over and I still can’t get over. I think I deserved much more respect than that. All the time I’ve been here — s***, I was there six years, — all the time I’ve been there and all the time, we won a championship, all this stuff and I can’t get a phone call or a text to tell me, like, ‘Look, this is what we’re thinking.’
Davis did seem understanding about the trade itself from the Lakers side, as he also admitted to having fantasized about pairing up with Dončić on the Lakers after James’ retirement.
Anthony Davis is still waiting to make his Wizards debut.
(Scott Taetsch via Getty Images)
Where Davis appeared less understanding was his treatment by the Pelicans when he returned to the Smoothie King Center as a member of the Lakers. He called the team’s lack of tribute video ‘the final straw’ for his relationship to the team and said it killed any chance of returning to the team in his later years:
“You know how it always goes, you get drafted to a team and when you’re done, it’s like, ‘Damn, toward the end of my career, I might want to go back.’ I’ve always had that mindset. I told [Pelicans owner Gayle Benson], when I was going to her right before the deadline to ask for a trade, I told her, ‘Ms. B, I want to get out of here, these are the reasons, whatever.’ Ms. B was cool. Me and Ms. B still cool to this day.
“I was like, ‘This might not be the end, though. Later on in my career, who knows if I was to come back and we try to do something special as I’m older and a little mature, the game developed, win a couple of championships, like whatever, I don’t know.’ I left that door open. And when I went back, that first game, and got no trib, I said, ‘Oh, that door is closed.’”
Since we are talking about a situation from seven years ago, it’s probably worth remembering that Davis a) had his agent publicly lobby for him to be traded to “a team that allows him the chance to win consistently and compete for a championship,” b) sank a deal with the Boston Celtics because he wouldn’t commit to the franchise long-term and c) was heavily booed by Pelicans fans during that game and would have been booed even louder if the team had given him a tribute video.
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So the idea of a tribute video might have been a little more complicated than Davis is presenting.
As for his current team, Davis admitted to being surprised the Mavericks sent him to the perennial bottom-dweller Wizards, though he says he has since been impressed by what the team has in the building:
“I was like, ‘Damn, Washington? What?’ But then when you get here, you look at the facility, the little details of the team, it’s like, ‘Not bad.’ I like the young guys on the team. These mother***ers can play. They play hard. They’re not afraid of the moment. They’re not scared. These guys can really hoop.”
There was, however, a mild warning to the team as it tries to leverage Davis, Trae Young, its young core and a 2026 NBA lottery pick into a winning team next year:
I’m at a young 33 and every year I play from here on out, I want to be able to compete for a championship. That’s what I want to do. If their goals align where it’s like — I just know and you know it’s tough to be one of the worst teams in the league and then next year you’re a championship contender.
Davis has yet to make his Wizards debut, having been sidelined since Jan. 8 with a hand injury. The team has little reason to push for his return this season, as it currently holds the worst record in the NBA at 17-62 and therefore the best position in this year’s draft lottery.