Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis (born March 11, 1993, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) is one of the most dominant big men in the National Basketball Association (NBA), noted for both his stifling defense and prolific scoring. After winning an NCAA championship with the University of Kentucky in 2012, he was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) with the number one overall pick. He later was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, and he helped the team win an NBA title in 2020.

Early life

Davis was born to Erainer Davis and Anthony Davis, Sr., and he has a twin sister as well as an elder sister, who was on the basketball team at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago. The family lived in the city’s Englewood neighborhood. Davis Jr. began playing basketball at a young age, and he later was on the team at Perspectives Math & Science Academy, a charter high school. When he began his freshman year, Davis was less than 6 feet (1.82 meters) tall, but, by the time he was a senior, he stood 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 meters). With this growth spurt, he transitioned from guard to forward/center and became both an offensive and defensive force.

Because his high school was not a basketball powerhouse—it did not even have a gymnasium—Davis was a relative unknown for most of his teen years. However, during his junior year, in 2010, he helped raise his national profile by joining a club team called Meanstreets, which was founded and coached by former National Football League wide receiver Tai Streets. Davis then had an outstanding senior year (2010–11), averaging 32 points, 22 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots per game. Once overlooked, he had become one of the top players in the national class of 2011.

Davis went on to play at the University of Kentucky, and in his one season there, 2011–12, he had 20 double-doubles (at least 10 points and 10 rebounds in a game), averaged 10.4 rebounds per game, and led the nation with 4.7 blocks per game. In the NCAA tournament he helped Kentucky reach the championship game, in which the team faced Kansas. Although he had a poor shooting performance—making just one of 10 shots—Davis made up for it with 16 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Kentucky won the title, and Davis was named Player of the Year by the Associated Press. He subsequently announced that he was entering the 2012 NBA draft.

NBA

The New Orleans Hornets selected Davis with the number one overall pick. In his rookie season (2012–13), he averaged 13.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game and was named to the NBA All-Rookie first team. His next season, when the Hornets changed their name to the Pelicans, Davis improved across the board—averaging 20.8 points, 10 rebounds, and a league-best 2.8 blocks per game. In 2014–15 Davis played in his first postseason, but the Pelicans lost in the first round. In February 2016 he scored a career-high 59 points in one game, but knee surgery in March sidelined him for the rest of the season. He returned in 2016–17 and had a breakout offensive season, averaging 28 points per game, along with 11.8 rebounds. The following season New Orleans returned to the playoffs and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals but lost to the Golden State Warriors.

During the 2018–19 season, Davis told the Pelicans he wanted to be traded, and he listed the Lakers as one of his preferred teams. In a blockbuster deal after the season, New Orleans traded Davis, a six-time All-Star, to the Lakers in exchange for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and three future first-round picks. The deal paired Davis with fellow superstar LeBron James on a Los Angeles team that was in the midst of a playoff drought, having missed the postseason for six straight seasons.

The trade had an instant payoff, with the Lakers not only returning to the playoffs but winning the NBA championship in Davis’s first year (2019–20) with the team. In the NBA finals he averaged 25 points and 10.7 rebounds in six games, and he scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the team’s title-clinching victory over the Miami Heat. Davis made his mark not just in points and rebounds but by prodding James, considered by some the greatest player of all time, to make more of an effort on defense. As James told Sports Illustrated in 2020, “In order for us to become the team we want to become, it starts and ends with [me and Davis]. From that very first practice he held me accountable.”

Various injuries limited Davis’s playing time in the next two seasons. He participated in the 2020–21 postseason, but the Lakers lost in the first round. In 2022–23 he averaged 25.9 points per game, and the Lakers advanced to the Western Conference finals. However, they were swept by the Denver Nuggets. In the offseason Los Angeles signed Davis to a three-year, $186 million maximum contract extension. Averaging $62 million per year, it was the richest annual contract extension in NBA history to that point.