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When Anthony Davis got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers the first person he called was point guard Rajon Rondo, a former Kentucky player just like him.
“Told him that I wanted him to come back because I knew how much I excelled with him and how much of a leader he is, and his mindset on the floor and his will to win,” Davis said. “And to have a guy like that with his basketball mind, his IQ, with a guy like LeBron (James), and his basketball mind, his IQ, and eight straight Finals, and Rondo having a championship under his belt, they know what it takes.”
Apparently Davis was right because the Lakers are now in the NBA Finals where they will face Miami, a team with two more former Cats in Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
“Rondo is always in my ear about being the best defensive player on the floor, best offensive player on the floor, even when it doesn’t seem possible, he might tell me, I need to go block a shot or close out to a guy, and then swing it across the floor, I need to be there, too,” Davis said.
“I say, ‘Do, that’s impossible.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t care, at the end of the day, you should be able to do it.'”
Davis had played with Rondo in New Orleans but an injury to DeMarcus Cousins, another former Cat, stopped that potential playoff run before Rondo left for the Lakers.
“He always puts pressure on me to do the impossible things. It’s not easy but if you want to win, you’ve got to do those type of things. He just been on me since I’ve been his teammate, and he wants the best for me,” Davis said.
“He wants to win. I want to win. Any time you got two guys who want to win so bad. It’s like he hasn’t won one (championship), it’s been 10 years. He wants to win as bad as I do, and when you have that with another guy who wants to win just as bad as us, we make a good team.”
