When Anthony Davis announced he wanted out of New Orleans, the Lakers put together several trade packages that included all of their young core players in hopes that the Pelicans would be interested enough to send AD to Los Angeles. The general thinking is that this was done at the behest of LeBron James and his manager, Rich Paul, who also manages Davis. During Thursday's shoot-around at TD Garden however, James implied that he's not behind his team's desperate attempts to land Davis because he has nothing to gain from the trade.
"There's nothing I need to get in this league that I don't already have," James told the assembled media. "Everything else for me is just icing on the cake... there's nothing I'm chasing."
![LeBron James, Anthony Davis](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 203 115"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
This matter of fact answer is backed up by James' historic career. In his 16 seasons in the NBA, has won four MVP awards, and climbed to top five on the NBA's all-time scoring list. He also has three NBA championships, including the one he won as the star of the Cleveland Cavilers, being the city's first professional title in 52-years.
But James comments fly in the face of comments he made in 2016, when he implied that he was still chasing Michael Jordan. "My motivation is this ghost I'm chasing," James told Sports Illustrated. "The ghost played in Chicago."