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It’s completely possible that the Los Angeles Lakers would not be where they are right now if Anthony Davis were healthy. Unfortunately, the eight-time All-Star missed a significant part of the season, which has left the Lakers eliminated from playoff contention.
This has been the case for Davis these past two seasons. This year, he’s played in just 40 games thus far. It was even worse last year when AD suited up just 36 times for the Lakers in the regular season. Needless to say, the 29-year-old is not the most robust player out there. At this point, more than a few folks would be willing to go as far as labeling Anthony Davis as an injury-prone star.
Davis is having none of it, though. In his mind, his injuries are no fault of his own. AD even decided to invoke Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant in trying to explain the specific type of injury he sustained this season:
“I had no injuries this year where it was, ‘Damn, that’s AD’s fault,'” Davis said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “Someone falls into my leg, sprains my MCL. The same exact thing [Kevin Durant] had.”
For his part, however, KD is now back and as good as ever. Durant has been playing some of the best basketball of his career as he hopes to lead the Nets to another extended playoff run this season. The same cannot be said for Davis and the Lakers. Be that as it may, Davis isn’t wrong about the similarities between his and Durant’s injuries.
Apart from his MCL injury, Davis also suffered a mid-foot sprain later in the season. This came at a horrible time for the Lakers as they were fighting for dear life in the West. Without their star big man, LA went on a downward spiral as they saw their playoff hopes dissipate right before their eyes. Not even the heroics of LeBron James could save the day for the Lakers. Things could have been different if AD were around.
Davis then went on to share the silver lining of his two major injuries this season. According to the 6-foot-10 forward/center, things could have actually been much worse for him:
“The good thing is, what people don’t know, is that the doctors actually told me that you’re lucky. Our team doctor said if you weren’t doing the work that you were supposed to be doing this summer, both could have been worse,” Davis said.
“I could have one, f—ed up my foot way more. Or I could have torn some s— in my knee. So it’s a positive for me, knowing that I put in a lot of work this summer and I prevented catastrophic injuries from happening to my body.
“So, people can say what they want to say, but I know what I do every summer to get ready for an 82-game season.”
Davis clearly isn’t enjoying all the talk about his injuries and he just wanted to make sure that people know that it’s not as if he’s slacking off. He continues to work hard during the summertime to make sure that he’s in his best form once the season begins. When asked if he thought that he needed to make some changes in terms of his preparations, Davis was straightforward in his response:
“No,” Davis said. “To be honest, my training methods were top tier. I can’t control stepping on someone’s foot and I can’t control someone falling into my leg. It’s not like I’m out of shape and I f—ing did some crazy s— or it was anything I could control.”
The NSFW language just goes to show how frustrated Davis has become with all this noise and how some people are making it seem like his injuries were intentional. At the end of the day, AD knows who he is as a player and he’s not going to let the naysayers tell him otherwise.
Davis did admit that there were some shortcomings on his end, particularly with his inability to stay on the court. Nevertheless, he has a promise for Lakers fans for next year as this team and its fanbase look to move on from this terrible season:
“My job is to be on the basketball floor and play games,” Davis said. “When I’m healthy, I’m a motherf—er. But I got to stay healthy. Unfortunately it was two injuries I couldn’t control this year but I’ll be back at it next year and see what happens.”