If the Lakers do one thing well, it's play the PR game with stars.
So it was surprising to see Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, in an interview with NPR, seemingly take shots at Anthony Davis when asked about the trade that sent him to Dallas for Luka Dončić.
"We gave up a lot to get Luka Dončić. We're happy we have him... Anthony Davis was complaining about where he was being played and he wasn't happy. So I think this was a positive for both teams. They got what they were looking for; we got what we were looking for. And I didn't realize it was going to be international news like it was, but that's the power of the Laker brand and its ability to draw big names who want to write their own chapter in Lakers history."
On the one hand, the Lakers did AD right with a great tribute video when the Mavs came to town last month. And Jeanie's comments point to frustration the organization certainly had with the yearly reiteration from Davis that he preferred to play power forward, not center. They almost surely were nervous about having to pay him like an All-NBA player deep into his 30s, as all teams are now with players aging out of their primes, especially when those players have a history of injury.
And its easy to wonder if Jeanie really intended to bad mouth Davis. Still... her comments weren't great. Davis wasn't trying to push his way out of LA. He didn't create any ultimatums. He played hard. To imply otherwise by saying he wasn't happy and got what he wanted is disingenuous and unfair. To imply that Davis wasn't quite able to hack it here isn't fair either. Davis forced his way here, and by all accounts was expecting to be here along while longer. To imply Luka was drawn here because he wants to write his own chapter in Lakers history, is "Lakers Exceptionalism" at its worst.
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: Did Jeanie dump on AD on purpose?
SEGMENT 2: Whether she meant it or not, Jeanie didn't cover herself in glory, here.
SEGMENT 3: In praise of Jaxson Hayes!
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