#2 The Anthony Davis deadlock which resulted in utter despair
The quest to bag Anthony Davis started with the following offer:
•
Apparently, the Pelicans administration found it underwhelming and asked for more, to which the needy party decided to go all out.
It became pretty clear after a while that referring to the Pelicans' GM Dell Demps' demands in return for AD as outrageous would be an absolute understatement. Eventually, the deal did not go through and the Lakers front-office led by Magic Johnson had to bear the public shame of putting nearly all of his players on the trade block for nothing. Once the smoke settled, all it did was leave a bad taste in the mouths of LA's young core.
According to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix,
"Handled quietly, and the Pelicans might have been more open to dealing with the Lakers, sources familiar with the situation told The Crossover,"
"But Davis’s attempt to bully his way to LA, coupled with internal questions about whether the Lakers, who are headlined by LeBron James, who is represented by Rich Paul, who also represents Davis, had a hand in all this only served to cement the Pelicans resistance to dealing with Los Angeles—for now, anyway."
Edited by Arvind Sriram