Why Anthony Davis didn’t celebrate LeBron’s record
LeBron James edged past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Tuesday - a feat celebrated by most of the Lakers organisation, but not Anthony Davis.
Anthony Davis came clean about why he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate team mate LeBron James setting a new NBA scoring record and insisted it was nothing personal - he was just upset with how Tuesday’s game turned out for the Lakers.
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James finally broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s long-time record (38,387 points) against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Crypto.com Arena but Davis didn’t join his Lakers team mates in saluting the NBA’s new scoring king, who took his tally to 38,390. Fan footage posted on social media showed Davis sat on the bench, with his view of the court obscured by standing Lakers, as James made his historic fadeaway jump shot.
That reaction prompted puzzlement from those on the outside of the organisation, but Davis provided an explanation on Thursday. As he pointed out, the Lakers trailed the Thunder at the time of James’ history-making bucket, which saw the game paused, and LA were unable to rally later, going down to a 133-130 defeat.
Speaking after another home loss against the Milwaukee Bucks, seeing the Lakers fall to 25-31 in 13th place in the West, Davis appeared annoyed by mention of the topic as he said: “You all know mine and Bron’s relationship. It’s nothing. It’s about the game. We’re losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, a game we needed. And I was p***ed off that we were losing. It’s that simple. It’s nothing that has to do with Bron. He knows that. Everybody else is outside looking in, it’s their opinion. But I was p***ed off that we were losing the game.”