The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a blistering start. After dropping their opening night game, the Lakers rattled off seven straight wins before falling to the defending champion Toronto Raptors last weekend. They’ve since regained their footing with a win over the Suns this week, who have been one of the league’s biggest surprises so far.
The LeBron James-Anthony Davis duo is already paying tremendous dividends for the Lakers, who sacrificed much of their young core in the offseason for the opportunity to land Davis and make a championship run sooner rather than later. For Davis, it’s clear he made the correct choice for himself by moving on from the organization that drafted him and where he blossomed into a star.
For the Pelicans and their fans, it’s much harder to reconcile, especially given the circumstances of Davis’ departure, which included a trade demand and disastrous negotiations between the two front offices the eventually led to major leadership changes on both sides.
With all of that looming, Davis knows that his return to New Orleans to face his former team later this month will be fraught with emotions for everyone involved. That’s why, as he told Shams Charania of Stadium in a recent interview, he turned to LeBron, who’s had more than a little experience with jilted former fanbases.
Lakers star Anthony Davis (@AntDavis23) sits down for @Stadium video interview: Lessons from LeBron — love toward NOLA and emotional return game Nov. 27 — his biggest regret with Pelicans exit — when he almost quit basketball — Chicago legacy and more. pic.twitter.com/LJM45AgsOA
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 13, 2019
“I talked to LeBron about this, because he went back to Cleveland, and I said, first off, how were you when you left Cleveland? Obviously, you left willingly, I asked for a trade, but what were your emotions? He was like, ‘I was scared. I was scared as sh*t.’ I love New Orleans. New Orleans is a part of me. It was tough for me to walk away from that. So when I go back, I’m gonna have mixed emotions…I know the fans are gonna boo me. I got booed when I was still playing there. But it’s gonna be fun for me. It’s another game. I just wanna win a game.”
Shams went on to ask about the prospect of a tribute video and whether Davis thought he deserved one, Davis deferred and said he’d understand either way. But as he pointed out elsewhere in the interview, despite their early-season success, he and the Lakers still have plenty of work to do to establish themselves as top contenders in the West, particular with their locker-room rivals making their own parallel ascension this season.
