Given his status in the NBA, which includes four-time All-NBA, eight-time All-Star, NBA champion and a member of 75th anniversary team, there are not many players who can talk down to Lakers star Anthony Davis. But one player who just might have that right is Hall of Fame big man Kevin Garnett, a longtime rival of the Lakers who faced off against L.A. twice in the NBA Finals, in 2008 and 2010.
And Garnett certainly let Davis know what he thought of the state of his career. Garnett, speaking on the Showtime program, The King of NBA Twitter with Josiah Johnson, ripped into Davis, who is coming off two injury-riddled and disappointing seasons in the last two years.
“Go back and watch yourself, real sh**,” Garnett said on the program. “And be real with yourself, watch you by yourself. Be real with yourself. Go to the lab and get your sh** right. No way he’s, probably, not Top 10, Top 5 in this game. Come on, man, that’s all I am going to say because I am going to start getting heated up. Real sh** though.”
Davis, since helping the Lakers to the 2019-20 championship in the Orlando bubble, missed 36 games in 2020-21 and 32 games in 2021-22. He has averaged 22.5 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in those two seasons, after putting up 26.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in his first season with the Lakers after coming over from New Orleans.
Injuries Have Slowed Davis for 2 Seasons
Injuries have been the major cause of concern for Davis, beginning with a calf injury in the spring of 2021 that knocked him out for most of the stretch run for the Lakers and left them with the No. 7 seed. Davis injured his groin in Game 4 of the Lakers’ first-round playoff series against Phoenix, with the Lakers leading the series 2-1 at the time. Davis played 5:25 from halftime of Game 4 through the Suns’ clinching win in Game 6.
Davis missed long stretches of the Lakers’ miserable 2021-22 season, first with an MCL injury, then with a foot sprain.
Garnett advised him to get away from the game for a bit, then come back ready to work this summer.
“If I’m talking to AD right now, bro, get lost,” Garnett said. “Go to Hawaii somewhere. Straight up and down, when you come into camp, come into camp in better shape than anybody and everybody. That’s what you should be focused on. You should go for the MVP of the 2022-23 season.”
Rasheed Wallace to the Rescue for Davis?
If there is a bright spot following the end of last season, which saw coach Frank Vogel get fired, it is that the Lakers brought in Darvin Ham, who used his old Detroit Pistons connections to bring in tough-guy forward Rasheed Wallace as an assistant coach for the Lakers.
Garnett said Wallace’s grit and edge would be beneficial for Davis.
“He can be so much better than he is,’ Garnett said. “I don’t know what’s around him but I would love to work with him—talking about, I can’t wait till Sheed, I am looking forward to that influence on him. He can be MVP of the league, man. He should be MVP of the league.”
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