LeBron James and Anthony Davis (Los Angeles Lakers Photo)
Remember how selfless Anthony Davis was when he played at Kentucky. Actually, it’s hard not to remember because even eight years after Davis led UK to the national title, coach John Calipari still talks about how scoring was normally the last thing on Davis’ mind.
That same attitude helped him fit in nicely with the Los Angeles Lakers and star LeBron James during the team’s march to the NBA championship this year. The former UK star and James both said after their final win over the Miami Heat that there was no jealousy between the two stars.
“The thought never crossed my mind when the trade (from New Orleans) happened. I’m not jealous of him, he’s not jealous of me. I think it shows on the court,” Davis said. “Obviously, that can always creep in when you’ve got two alpha males on the same team. But I think when you’ve got two guys who are very selfless and want to win as bad as both of us want to, the rest of it goes away and just takes care of itself.
Jealousy has never been a thing on our team from anyone. Everyone is extremely excited for the other guy. When guys get awards or accolades, our team is the first ones to congratulate them. We make sure that we bring it up in film or after the game or whenever we see it. But no one is jealous of one another.”
Sounds familiar? It was basically the same approach UK’s 2012 national championship team had. Davis was the No. 1 pick in the draft that year and teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was No. 2. Yet there was no jealousy or animosity between the two and both valued winning over any individual statistics.
James said there was a metal respect between him and Davis that pushed both to “command excellence” out of each other.
“Jealousy and envy has killed a lot of great things, not only in sports but in general. If you’re able to just throw that to the side and throw your egos to the side but continue to bring that confidence of what you’re trying to do of keeping the main thing … not saying it’s that easy, but for us it’s that easy when it comes to our relationship,” James said. “It doesn’t result in wins every night. It doesn’t result in me putting up numbers or him putting up numbers every night, but as far as our brotherhood and our chemistry, that’s what it boils down to.”
Davis said the drive to be great helped hold each of them accountable.
“We both want to dominate the game,” Davis said.
Both can dominate without scoring. James is a phenomenal passer and can hit the boards. Davis can block shots and rebound and has become an even better passer in the NBA than he was at UK.
“It always seem like everything is good with me and him, and we do have our times where we do yell at each other and we do argue, but we know it’s coming from a good place, so we get over it quickly and move on to the next play. We are just two guys that really want to win and have a love for the game,” Davis said.
