What’s going on with Anthony Davis?
As you probably know by now, a few days ago
Anthony Davis’ agent, Rich Paul, went to the Pelicans’ GM and announced him
that Davis wants out of New Orleans. When the news broke it created a big
number of theories about the place where the superstar will go, but more than
that it exposed one of the biggest problems of the NBA.
As I watched a lot of comments and analysis on this subject I observed that the
matter is instead much deeper than it seems. Let me explain this. Rich Paul is
Anthony Davis’ agent but he is also LeBron James’ agent and one of his closest
friends. Therefore, it is an easy conclusion that LA Lakers would become the
most probable destination for Anthony Davis. Although the player has not
verbally expressed his wish, all the facts point to him being a Laker. And here
come all the problems, as expressed by Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman, Rachel
Nichols, and others.
Apparently, in the NBA there is a huge disagreement between players and owners.
Basically, great players that are being drafted in small markets are forced to
stay 7 years with that team if they don’t want to lose a lot of money. This
thing started to take shape after LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami and Dan
Gilbert complained to the officials of the league. The Cavaliers’ owner became
a representative of small markets which they say are given small chances of
having success. He said that players have too much power to leave and the teams
remain with nothing.
What does this have to do with Anthony Davis? Well, NBA insiders said that a
lot of owners have called Dell Demps, the Pelicans GM, and told him not to
accept the Lakers’ offer. By doing so, they want to send a message to the
league and the players that the teams’ owners still have a lot of power and
they can do whatever they want with their superstars. In the meantime, great athletes
such as Paul George, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis requested a trade with
more than one year left from their contract, trying to take the future in their
own hands.
So, basically, the whole Anthony Davis story is caught into the fight between
owners and players and between small markets and big markets. That’s why there
is a slight chance that the Pelicans will allow Anthony Davis to go to the
Lakers. This means, that if the superstar really wants to join the Californian
team he will have to wait until 2020 when he becomes a free agent. But until
then a lot of things could happen, including him being traded to another
organization, such as the Boston Celtics.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
