{"id":131494,"date":"2025-03-30T03:53:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T07:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131494"},"modified":"2025-03-30T03:53:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T07:53:38","slug":"anthony-davis-post-trade-lebron-james-rumor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/30\/anthony-davis-post-trade-lebron-james-rumor\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Davis Addresses Post-Trade LeBron James Rumor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The way that the Luka Doncic<\/a>–Anthony Davis<\/a> trade was described, Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison should\u2019ve been in a spy movie. Their clandestine backroom meetings<\/a> have truly altered the NBA landscape, the ripple effects stretching across space and time. One franchise\u2019s fan base has been shaken to its core. The other has been stirred to the point of restlessness.<\/p>\n

Underneath it all are raw emotions from the players themselves.<\/p>\n

Anthony Davis Addresses Post-Trade LeBron James Rumor<\/h2>\n

Though front office executives were clearly tight-lipped about the Doncic-Davis deal, there was always a belief that more people knew it was in the works than was being let on. Last week, NBA free agent Marcus Morris<\/a> added fuel to the fire after claiming that Lakers superstar LeBron James<\/a> insisted on his team trading for Markieff Morris<\/a>, his twin brother.<\/p>\n

To this point, James has neither confirmed or denied the report. However, because of James\u2019s well-documented influence, it might just be the truth. Not to mention that James is genuinely fond of Morris, whom he won a championship with in 2020.<\/p>\n

In a general sense, this isn\u2019t an issue at all. Former players may lament James\u2019s sway or affinity for All-Star teammates. Their perspective is just an opinion though. Furthermore, why shouldn\u2019t he make sure front office\u2019s are as committed to winning as him?<\/p>\n

Still, James and Davis were as thick as thieves in their time together. One of them giving the go-ahead for the other to be traded is cutthroat. That being said, if that is what happened, Davis understands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a business<\/a>,\u201d he tells Andscape scribe Marc J. Spears.<\/p>\n

People are saying that [James] knew [of the trade] because of the Marcus Morris [quote saying James knew] that comes out. [James] is saying he don’t. At this point, whether he knew or not or whoever knew, or it was quiet when [ESPN’s] Shams (Charana) dropped [the news], it doesn’t matter who knew. This s- happened. You can’t change like, ‘Oh, [James] didn’t know, well let’s change it’ It’s no going back. But as far as our leadership, obviously, we were on the same team, so we talked all the time. But [the Lakers! are trying to make a push, we’re trying to make a push, so we don’t talk as much. But we still check in on each other. He texts me all the time. [James’ chief of staff] Randy [Mims] hit me. Actually, they both just hit me. Vando [Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt] did. We still talk to those guys. I’ve been with [James] the longest, six-and-a-half years. We’ve been really close, but nothing has changed.<\/p>\n

Obviously, we don’t talk hang like we used to just because of the teams and stuff. But I’m sure we will get together over this summer and try to figure it out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Transcendent Brotherhood<\/h3>\n

As he noted, among the star teammates that Davis has had, his stretch with James was the longest.<\/p>\n

Former NBA point guard Tyreke Evans<\/a> lasted four seasons in New Orleans, suiting up alongside Davis in 172 games. Jrue Holiday<\/a>, who now plays for the Boston Celtics, played alongside him for six seasons (310 games). With that in mind, though Davis and James were teammates for a bit longer due to the timing of his trade to the Mavericks, they only played 249 games together. Thus, an argument could be made that he and Holiday spent more time together than he and James.<\/p>\n

However, Davis\u2019s relationship with Holiday may not be quite as strong as the one he had with James. Of course, Davis and Holiday are actually close friends. When they had the chance to reunite as teammates during the Paris Olympics, Davis had this to say<\/a> (h\/t The Sporting Tribune\u2019s Arash Markazi):<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy, a great dude, one of my best friends in this league. Our families are really close. My wife and his wife are really close, he\u2019s a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he and James\u2019s friendship was truly brotherly. It was as if the two had grown up together in Chicago or Akron. That being said, even if James was aware that Davis would be traded, their bond should allow them to smooth over the situation (if they haven\u2019t already).<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The way that the Luka Doncic–Anthony Davis trade was described, Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison should\u2019ve been in a spy movie. Their clandestine backroom meetings have truly altered the NBA landscape, the ripple effects stretching across space and time. One franchise\u2019s fan base has been shaken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":131563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,30,26,33,4721],"tags":[240,239,38,369,990,4774,1382,751],"class_list":["post-131494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-lakers","category-pelicans","category-trade-rumors","tag-anthony-davis","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-lebron-james","tag-marcus-morris","tag-markieff-morris","tag-rumors","tag-nba-trade","tag-tyreke-evans"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131494"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131564,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131494\/revisions\/131564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}