On the day after the New Orleans Hornets won the NBA Draft Lottery, expected No. 1 pick Anthony Davis was feeling good. And really, why shouldn’t he be?
He’s 19 years old, still feeling the afterglow that comes with leading his college team to a national championship and in less than a month he'll become a millionaire who gets to play the game that he loves for a living.
The living is easy for Davis right now.
So easy, in fact, that when Davis joined Dan Patrick’s radio show on Thursday to talk about the upcoming season, he let the world know that there’s more to him than those long arms and that unibrow. He’s got some personality, confidence and and humor and he's comfortable enough to show it.
When Patrick asked Davis the player he is most looking forward to playing against, the soon-to-be rookie first mentioned his former Kentucky teammates. After Patrick then pushed the question in hopes of getting a better answer, Davis went along with the questioning and decided he'd aim at the top.
Via Ball Don’t Lie, here’s what Davis had to say in response to Patrick:
"But you want to, like, dunk over [Michael] Kidd-Gilchrist or DeMarcus [Cousins] â€" I mean, you were only there one year, you can't have that many guys to play against," Patrick replied. "You don't want to go against LeBron [James] or Kobe [Bryant] or Dwight Howard?"
"Um, probably Kobe," Davis said.
"Really," Patrick said, hinting at a question mark but not quite getting there.
"You know, Kobe, he's a monster," Davis said. "So I want to just go out there and try my hardest. You know, there's a lot of guys who can't stop Kobe. So if I stop him, I'll be one of them guys who can say, 'I shut Kobe down.'"
"Be careful what you ask for, Anthony," Patrick said, as Davis laughed. "He listens to the show, and he's got a great memory."
"Tell him I'll be waiting," Davis replied with a laugh.
This is so good.
It’s great to see Davis show his personality and his excitement to soon be in the league facing off against the world’s best talent. It’s great to see a defender salivate over the opportunity to shut down one of the best players in the history of the game. It’s exciting because you know that someone will pass these quotes along to Bryant and we’ll get to hear about it again when the Hornetsâ€"or, you know, whatever team Davis ends up going toâ€" face off against the Lakers.
Watching rookies find their footing in the professional game is always fun. Watching Bryant take it to Davis and Davis try to steal a highlight from one of the highlight kings of our time is going to be awesome.
Hey, Anthony Davis. More radio interviews, please. More bold statements, too.
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