Getty Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis.
You never quite know what you are going to get from a press conference with Lakers star LeBron James. On Sunday, after Anthony Davis’ Game 2 buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat the Nuggets in the NBA‘s Western Conference finals, James gave us a range of references, including one from a 110-year old speech from former President Teddy Roosevelt and another about soiling one’s own trousers—or, more directly, “s— their pants.”
Davis made a 3-pointer after the Lakers trailed by one point with 2.1 seconds to play. The shot went down as time expired, giving L.A. the victory and a 2-0 edge in the series.
In the postgame press conference, the focus was on Davis having sought out these kinds of opportunities to make big shots. He did not have many such opportunities during the seven years he spent in New Orleans before he was traded to the Lakers last summer. Only twice in Davis’ Pelicans career did the team reach the playoffs, winning only one of three series.
Let’s start with the NSFW portion of James’ postgame view on Davis accepting the mantle as a top player on one of the league’s top teams.
“You put that pressure on yourself when you don’t really care about what other people think,” James said. “Because what other people think doesn’t really matter because they don’t understand. Anybody can talk from outside. But if they got into the ring, if they got into the arena, probably 10 times out of 10, they s— their pants.”
Lakers’ LeBron James on critics: “Anybody can talk from outside but if they got into the ring or got into the arena, probably 10 times out of 10, they’d s—- their pants.”
LeBron James Channels His Inner Teddy Roosevelt
The speech James was referring to, originally titled, “Citizenship in a Republic,” but known widely as the “Man in the Arena” speech, was delivered by Roosevelt in Paris in 1910. The thrust of Roosevelt’s speech was that those who attempt to do big things and make significant change drown out their critics in doing so.
“It is not the critic who counts,” Roosevelt said, “not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly.”
James began his musings on Davis after Game 2 by doing his best TR impression, saying:
It’s about the guy that’s in the arena, that’s going through everything, the blood, the sweat, the tears. In our situation, competition, it’s about the work you put in, the belief in yourself. It’s not about the doubters or the naysayers or people who’s going to talk about you and slander you and try to put you down, bring you down every single day. It’s not about them because they’ve never been in the arena, they don’t understand. AD, he knows how special he is. If he don’t, I’ll be the first one to tell him how special he is. And he wanted to be here. I’m happy he wanted to be here because if he didn’t we wouldn’t have had a moment like we had tonight, so that’s what it is all about.
LeBron James Helped Bring Anthony Davis to Lakers
James and Davis were friends even before Davis joined the Lakers, going back to Davis’ appearance on the 2012 USA Basketball Olympic team, which was James’ final foray into international hoops. James and his agent, Rich Paul, who also represents Davis, were instrumental in orchestrating Davis’ move from New Orleans to Los Angeles. James has attempted to take Davis under his wing this year.
Back in late July, Davis spoke of the important lesson he learned from James about handling day-to-day life in the NBA.
“You know, I used to be so upset and so, like, down, when we lose a game,” Davis said, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “And he’d be like, ‘I done lost in-season series to several teams. But when the playoffs come, it’s different.’ … For a guy who’s done it year after year after year after year, eight times in a row [in the NBA Finals] … if he’s not worrying, then I’m like, ‘All right, we’re fine.’ But once he starts getting a little upset, it’s like, ‘All right, we know it’s something that we know it’s something that we need to fix.'”