Anthony Davis

Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993), nicknamed "AD", is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

He previously played for the New Orleans Pelicans.

He plays the power forward and center positions.

Davis is an nine-time NBA All-Star and has been named to four All-NBA First Teams and four NBA All-Defensive Teams.

In August 2010, Davis played in the Nike Global Challenge in Hillsboro, Oregon.

In the opening game, he had 23 points and 9 rebounds.

Davis verbally committed to Kentucky on August 13, 2010, choosing it over DePaul, Ohio State and Syracuse.

On August 24, 2010, he became the number one rated player in the national class of 2011 at Scout.com.

Before Davis committed to Kentucky, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that his father had asked Kentucky for $200,000 in exchange for a commitment from Davis.

The report was initially released on Wednesday August 4, 2010 by Sun-Times reporter Michael O'Brien.

Citing "a reliable source", he posted the following text: "Rumors/sources that have Davis choosing Kentucky are also alleging that the commitment cost $200,000."

The sentence was later edited to say "rumors that Davis's commitment is for sale have surfaced since he cut his list of schools down about a month ago."

Although he remained unnoticed nationally and locally after three seasons of Chicago Public League play, he was soon thereafter rated as the number one player in the class of 2011 by Scout.com and was listed in the ESPNU 100.

Attention came when he started playing on Tai Streets' Meanstreets (AAU team) traveling system in the spring of his junior year.

In late April, Syracuse University offered him a scholarship.

That spring, NBA Top 100 Camp Director Dave Telep invited him to the camp based on his dominant first-half performance of the first game of the Fort Wayne, Indiana Spiece Fieldhouse event.

He led Kentucky to a national championship and was named the most outstanding player of the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

Davis left college for the NBA after one season and was drafted as the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the New Orleans Hornets, and was selected that summer to play in the 2012 Olympics.

After his rookie season, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.

The next season, he became an All-Star for the first time and led the NBA in blocked shots per game.

He has since become the youngest player to score at least 59 points in an NBA game.

He has won gold medals with the United States national team on their 2012 Olympic team and 2014 World Cup team, making him the first player in basketball history to win an NCAA title, NBA title, Olympic gold medal and FIBA World Cup.

Born in Chicago, Davis grew up in the Englewood neighborhood and played high school basketball for Perspectives Charter School, where he had attended school since sixth grade.

The team plays in the Blue Division of the Chicago Public High School League, which is ignored by the media because of its lower level of competition.

Perspectives is a charter school that operates as a math and science academy; it has a strong academic reputation, but minimal athletic success.

The school had no gymnasium and Davis's middle school basketball teams practiced at the nearby Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago's historic South Loop District.

In junior high school, he was known as "the little guy who would shoot threes from the corner".

He ended his freshman year at a height of 6 ft. By the beginning of his sophomore year, he had grown another 1 in, and he finished the year at 6 ft.

Davis began his junior basketball season at 6 ft, saying he felt fortunate to have had such a rapid growth spurt without any knee pains.

During his junior year, his family considered having him transfer to one of Chicago's basketball powerhouses, but Hyde Park Career Academy head coach Donnie Kirksey advised against it, saying "If you're good enough, they'll find you wherever you are".

Perspectives finished the season 8–15.

In 2017, he was named the recipient of the NBA All-Star Game MVP Award after setting an All-Star Game scoring record of 52 points.

Davis was traded to the Lakers in 2019.

In his first season with the Lakers, he won the 2020 NBA Finals.

In 2021, he was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

He also won the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023 with the Lakers.

Davis is widely regarded as one of the greatest power forwards of all time.

Davis played one season of college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, when he was first team All-American and the Consensus National Player of the Year.

He also won the USBWA National Freshman of the Year, NABC Defensive Player of the Year and the Pete Newell Big Man Award.

Davis led the NCAA in blocks and set Southeastern Conference and NCAA Division I freshman single-season blocked shots records.