Anthony Davis tells LeBron James on ‘The Shop’ that New Orleans Pelicans were going to keep him

The season premiere of ‘The Shop’ aired last night on HBO and Anthony Davis, one of the guests for this episode, made several comments to LeBron James, Jamie Foxx, Antonio Brown and others regarding his trade request from the New Orleans Pelicans and a newfound desire to control his destiny.

After going into detail about that first game in a Pelicans uniform following the trade request — where he heard both the boos and cheers at home against the Timberwolves, Anthony Davis was asked by Maverick Carter if it was tough right now not knowing what’s going to happen next.

“It is tough,” replied Davis. “You just don’t know, like I don’t know. I have one year left on {my} contract so I’m not sure what they’re going to do. Obviously, I stated my intentions, but I did that this year. They sit down and go, ‘We’ll keep you here.’ So for me, it’s just not knowing what’s going to happen. At the end of day, they might as well do what they do.”

Carter followed with a statement, “AD, you just wanted to be a great basketball player. And the fame came.”

Davis quickly answered, “Honestly, I just wanted to make it to the league and the rest just like happened.”

When the topic of pleasing families came up, Davis chimed in, “My biggest thing with my parents, always feel like I always owe my parents everything. And they say, you don’t owe us nothing. We don’t want nothing.”

LeBron James: “One thing I love about his mom and dad...his mom and dad are so gangsta though. They don’t want no limelight. They don’t want to be in the limelight. They literally go to the game and be sitting at the concession stand watching the game.”

Towards the end of this episode, LeBron James brought Davis into the conversation by having him talk about his recent maturation as a human being.

LeBron James: “You know what’s crazy is that I feel like you feel the momentum shifting and I think right now at this point I think AD is finally starting to feel the momentum shift. As great as he’s been in our league these last five years, I think now he’s finally starting to see the momentum shift and who he is though.”

Anthony Davis: “Yeah, and that’s what it is. All of the media coverage around me, I’m now getting a chance to take over my career and say what I want to say and do what I want to do. So now you see everybody alright, ‘I see AD changing.’ Everybody telling me, ‘You’re growing up. About time to take care of your business, take care of your career.’ So now, like as a player, as the CEO of my own business, I got the power. I’m doing what I want to do and not what somebody is telling me.”

All in all, nothing too enlightening. Anthony Davis painted the Pelicans decision to keep him beyond the trade deadline as puzzling and troubling at the same time, and soon thereafter he made the proclamation that he’s the captain of his ship — upon taking the advice of those around him.

But of course.