Yes, New Orleans Pelicans’ fans, it’s still ok to hate Anthony Davis.
It’s time to move on, right? New Orleans Pelicans‘ fans need to forgive and forget, right?
Anthony Davis is living in your head rent free! (my least favorite cliche. My brain is big enough to hold lots of information. Hating Anthony Davis has not caused me to forget how to tie my shoes, there’s lots of room for hate and it’s free!).
Ok, so I don’t really hate Anthony Davis, not as a human. I don’t know the man and I’m sure he’s lovely (just look at those eyebrows!). But I sports hate him, which is different.
Sports hate doesn’t involve wishing the person would get hit by a bus or put in a rocket and fired into the sun. Sports hate is a more civilized hate and mostly involves yelling expletives at a television.
So I sports hate Anthony Davis, and if you are a fan of the New Orleans Pelicans, you should too. Here’s why.
New Orleans Pelicans: Reasons to keep hating Anthony Davis
Reason #1: He’s on the Lakers
I could really end the list here.
Davis, one of the biggest frontrunner players of all time, went and joined the biggest frontrunner team of all time with the biggest and most insufferable bandwagon fanbase.
Lakers’ fans are universally recognized as the worst in the sport and have spent the last few years calling the Pels everything from a “low-class franchise” and a “poor team” to jeering at how they stole our best player and how they will eventually do the same with Zion Williamson.
The “live in your head rent free” actually applies more accurately to them, as it is Lakers’ fans flocking to my timeline when they win, not the other way around.
Believe it or not, Pels’ fans are happy with the team in New Orleans. We have likable stars who actually want to be in the city and enjoy culture that is not based around the Kardashians.
Lakers’ fans are the worst, let’s move on.
New Orleans Pelicans: More reasons to hate Anthony Davis
Reason #2: God, Davis is a crybaby
If there is a team that whines more than this current Lakers’ team, I’d hate to watch them.
LeBron James has never committed a foul that didn’t result in him running halfway down the court screaming and crying like a toddler who was just told he couldn’t go on the pony.
Anthony Davis fits right in.
Watching Davis fake injuries in the playoffs this year, falling down, rolling on the floor like he’d been shot, only to get up and be fine once his team had the ball again brought back memories.
Remember when Anthony Davis faked an injury to try and speed up his trade? I do. And I’m sure Alvin Gentry does as well.
MRI on Anthony Davis’ shoulder showed a muscle contusion but “nothing too bad”, according to a source close to Davis. He’ll head to Charlotte, get treatment over next few days & see how he feels before deciding whether he can play Sunday https://t.co/NVcVfycGMt
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 15, 2019
Instead of honoring the contract he signed, Anthony Davis faked injuries, refused to play center and basically did whatever he could to force the Pelicans’ hand.
Stars demanding trades is nothing new, but Davis did it more publically than anyone in memory, culminating in him wearing a “That’s all folks!” t-shirt at a press conference which was the final straw for most Pels’ fans.
His excuse for wearing the shirt was even weaker and I would have had more respect for him had he just owned the fact that he was trolling his own fan base.
Everyone called B.S. on Davis’ stunt, and at that point, the Pels couldn’t see the back of him quickly enough.
The crazy thing is that the Pelicans weren’t even bad. They had made an effort to appease Davis but it was never going to be enough.
Davis eventually whined and cried his way out of town and the Pels got a haul for him. It was a fair trade for both teams, the Lakers got their star and the Pels got their young talent and draft assets.
But Pels’ fans won’t forget how it all went down, and Davis will know about it every time he snakes his way back into town.
New Orleans Pelicans: Even more reasons to hate Anthony Davis
Reason #3: The Rewritten history
If you asked Anthony Davis why he wanted out of New Orleans, he’d probably say that he’s a competitor who wants to win and the team wasn’t doing enough to make that happen.
Sure, Tony.
Sorry that New Orleans was not able to land the greatest player of all time for you but LeBron James wasn’t available at the time.
Instead, The Brow was given players like Rajon Rondo, Nikola Mirotic, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, Tyreke Evans, Omer Asik, DeMarcus Cousins and some guy called Jrue Holiday.
The Pelicans didn’t do the best job of building around Davis, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t through lack of effort. They added impact players every year he was in New Orleans, yet they only made the playoffs twice in Davis’ tenure, getting swept in 2014-15 and losing in the second round in 2017-18.
In addition to the players I already mentioned, Davis had role players like Langston Galloway, Ish Smith, Lance Stephenson, Tony Allen and E’Twaun Moore.
Obviously, LeBron is the X-Factor, but it is easy to argue that the 2017-18 Pelicans were actually a much better and deeper team than the Lakers team that just won the title.
Of course, the Lakers have LeBron, so they don’t need a deep roster, and now that Davis has LeBron, he can rewrite history and act like he never had one in New Orleans.
It’s also hard to draw free agents when your star player is constantly implying that he wants out.
Also tough when your star player refuses to play center, forcing the team to make the disastrous Boogie Cousins trade to make him happy, just so he could leave anyway.
Look, things worked out for both teams. The Lakers got their fantasy team title, patching together a team out of veterans chasing a ring and they will probably do it again next year.
The Pels have an exciting young team, a ton of assets and a much better front office that is going to try and bring a title to New Orleans.
And when they do, it will be so much sweeter knowing Anthony Davis is not there.