Barring health issues to Pelicans owner Gayle Benson, it doesn’t sound like Anthony Davis will be a Laker next season.
According to ESPN, Benson has made it clear not to deal the star forward to Los Angeles.
“We have been told, I think, through channels – most of us have heard this same scuttlebutt – that Gayle Benson has basically told [new general manager David Griffin], ‘To the Lakers, over my dead body,’” ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan said.
Benson later refuted the report, calling it “totally absurd” and “completely untrue,” according to WDSU.
Ever since Davis requested a trade from the Pelicans in January, it was reported the Lakers were the six-time All-Star’s preference — he shares an agent with LeBron James, Rich Paul — and the two have been linked together. But the Lakers and Pelicans couldn’t come to terms on a deal before the trade deadline, general manager Dell Demps was fired and eventually replaced by Griffin.
Now, barring a drastic change by Benson, Davis will have to wait another year before joining James in the purple and gold. Of course, he could always just stay in New Orleans and play with Zion Williamson, the Duke phenom who the Pelicans are expected to draft after winning the lottery.