The confounding, unfounded disregard of the big man’s skills and
toughness was on display after a shot to the head forced him from Game 5
on Wednesday
>Lakers forward Anthony Davis sits on the bench after taking a blow to
the head during the second half of Game 5 of their second-round playoff
series against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in San
Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
By MIRJAM SWANSON | mswanson@scng.com | Southern California News Group
PUBLISHED: May 11, 2023 at 3:45 p.m. | UPDATED: May 11, 2023 at 3:45 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/05/11/swanson-lakers-anthony-davis-deserves-more-respect/

Mirjam Swanson is a sports columnist for the Southern California News
Group, our partner publication.

“Concussion!?” Stephen A. Smith screeched on ESPN’s “First Take” on
Thursday morning, his most incredulous level of falsetto threatening
eardrums across the nation. “I thought the NFL season was over.”

Wait, what?

“I understand that concussions can happen in other sports – boxing, UFC.
I mean, if the collision is fierce enough, I guess it could happen in
basketball too but damn, I ain’t see nothing yesterday that made me say
concussion!”

What even – what?

“Was he running over the middle and got hit by Ronnie Lott or something?
Did I miss something? Did he get hit by Aaron Donald? Did I miss
something?!”

Did Smith miss 7-foot strongman Kevon Looney swinging his substantial
forearm into Anthony Davis’ head on Wednesday night, during Game 5 of
the Lakers-Golden State Warriors second-round playoff series? Knocking
him off kilter and sending him to the bench, and then into the tunnel,
dazed and listing to one side?

“Damnit, I’d be damned if I wasn’t laughing.”

Oh, no. Let me back away from this keyboard.

… actually, no. Let’s write.

The notion that Davis might have a concussion – it was unclear Thursday
morning, when Smith was ranting, whether he did – is so laugh-out-loud
funny because … why?

Because it’s A.D.?

The Rodney Dangerfield of NBA champions?

The league’s best defender whose name was omitted from the NBA’s first
and second All-Defensive teams, and who got only nine second-team votes?
Even though he was tied for second among centers with 9.1 defensive
rebounds per game and third with 1.1 steals and – this is key – played
more minutes (1,904) this season than Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr.
(1,787), your 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year?

The Lakers’ 30-year-old center who has been made out, by the talking
heads dictating the national narrative, as something of a wimp? Or, at
best, a 6-foot-10 tall drink of water served in your grandma’s fanciest
and most fragile porcelain glass?

That’s the reputation, right? According to some non-doctors on Twitter,
he’s “a known dramatic crybaby,” and a “glass giraffe,” not the player
who’s fighting through a right foot injury this postseason – and who
nonetheless has been one of the most impactful performers in any series.

His swarming, stifling, spectacular defense – I know, defense, invisible
to those with rocks for brains – has helped lift the Lakers within a
game of the Western Conference finals. He’s averaging 13.5 rebounds and
3.5 blocked shots per game!

Davis’ scoring, which yes, has come in spurts, averages out to 21.5
points per game – more than any big man in the playoffs besides Nikola
Jokic (30.6) and Joel Embiid (24.6). And just one point less per game
than LeBron James is averaging.

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But you’d think, the way Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley fell into
a giggling fit Wednesday night on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” after the
Lakers’ 121-106 Game 5 loss, that A.D. is a joke.

That he’s some scrub and not one of the NBA’s Top 75 players ever. That
he isn’t the fellow who had the fortitude in 2020 to finish the job in
the confines – friendly to no one – of a bubble far from home. He hit
huge shots, remember, and averaged 27.7 points and 9.7 rebounds during
the Lakers’ run to a 17th championship.

Yeah, but…

I can hear you out there, you don’t have to yell: a.D. Is INjury pRONe!

Did you know that Davis, in the four seasons since he joined the Lakers,
has played more games (194) than Steph Curry (188) in that span? That
they both played 56 games this season?

Now imagine the tenor of the conversation if it had been Curry who’d
taken a shot to the head on Wednesday.

We would have heard expressions of concern. Talk of proper protocols and
protecting a revered athlete. Appropriate discourse.

It would have been a reminder about how essential it is for everyone
playing sports – whether you’re a girl playing soccer, a boy playing ice
hockey or a hooper fighting for a rebound – of how to mind possible
brain injuries.

It would’ve sounded like this: “It’s an easy argument to make that his
life is on the line when he steps out on the field.”

That’s Smith, by the way, just a few weeks ago, on April 20. He was on
TV reacting to Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s admission
that he contemplated retirement after suffering multiple concussions
last season.

--
Mirjam Swanson
@MirjamSwanson ·Follow
Just gonna leave this here.

Awful Announcing
@awfulannouncing
Stephen A. Smith says allowing Tua Tagovailoa to play after stumbling
off the field in Week 3 was "criminal"
[Embedded video]

9:15 AM · May 11, 2023
105 Reply Share
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“What happened with him was criminal,” a solemn, sober Smith said then.
“He should have never, ever been allowed to stay on the field, even
though he survived that game that Miami won (against Buffalo), and he
certainly shouldn’t have been allowed on the field that Thursday night
against Cincinnati, when another hit, where his head hit the turf and it
looked like rigor mortis had kicked in and his fingers were contorted,
and his body froze.

“It was a scary, scary sight to see.”

So … not funny, in other words?

Because it didn’t happen to Anthony Davis?

Enough people let it be known that they did not find any humor in Davis’
injury that Smith was moved to walk back his comments on Twitter later
Thursday.

“Blow back is Blow back,” he tweeted. “Comes with the territory, peeps.
I was in no way minimizing the seriousness of a concussion. I was
questioning whether Anthony Davis really had one, considering the play I
saw & other hits I’ve seen him absorb. But, bottom line, it was wrong
for me to do. Period! My bad.”

There are hot takes, there are bad takes – and then there are bad takes.

My only take: Here’s hoping the Lakers and those around Davis take good
care of him.

--
Dave McMenamin
@mcten ·Follow
Anthony Davis just exited the arena after Game 5.
[video]

10:25 PM · May 10, 2023
3.9K Reply Share
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Mirjam Swanson | Clippers and NBA
Clippers and NBA writer