If I gave you $100,000 to correctly guess LeBron James’ next guest on his hit HBO series, The Shop, you’d probably go with Anthony Davis. Davis and James are both Klutch Sports clients, and we just witnessed a wild period of the season that featured James’ Lakers nearly dealing three-quarters of their roster to New Orleans for Davis at the trade deadline.
You’d be oh so right.
Davis will join James, Maverick Carter, Steelers All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown, as well as entertainers Jamie Foxx, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz and Jerrod Carmichael on the Season 2 premiere of The Shop, which will air on March 1 on HBO. The episode was filmed in Charlotte during the 2019 NBA All-Star Weekend, which is after the trade deadline ended with Davis staying in New Orleans.
Of course Davis is on The Shop
And some fans think this is an instance of tampering.
In reality, the league doesn’t enforce player-to-player tampering because it’s tough to call. But that doesn’t stop fans from being angry at the connection — or cracking jokes about it.
James wants Davis on his team, and vice-versa. The Pelicans may not trade The Brow directly to the Lakers, but in his All-Star Weekend media appearance, Davis said he would be open to being traded to any of the 29 teams before his unrestricted free agency hits in 2020. At that point, anything can happen — including signing with the Lakers in free agency.
Davis and Brown are in similar situations. Brown is also engineering an exit from his current team, having requested a trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is one of the two or three best players at the wide receiver position but the Steelers haven’t been able to find a deal for him.
So ... what are they going to talk about?
Will they even address the rumors? They kind of have to, right?
If so, is James going to talk about winning championships, something Davis has yet to do? Is he going to swing questions about what Davis wants, and where things went wrong in New Orleans?
This can go a number of ways, which is exactly why there’s hype around the return of this series.