Pro athletes are usually forced to grow up faster than most, but the burden of premature responsibility and expectation was particularly heavy on the shoulders of Anthony Davis.
Drafted first overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in 2012, a teenaged Davis was tasked with lifting a moribund team out of its post-Chris Paul doldrums. He didn't feel ready.
"I think when I first got here, guys were like, 'All right. You're the guy,'" Davis told reporters at Pelicans Media Day on Friday. "I'm only 19 years old as a rookie. It was tough."
Four years, three All-Star games, an All-NBA first team nod, and one playoff appearance later, Davis is comfortable steering the ship.
"I think he realizes more so than anything now that this is his team and that he's the leader of this team," said Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry. "All the players accept him as that. I told everyone last year that you're talking about a 23-year-old kid that you want to be the leader of the team, but he's grown so much over the summer."
Davis' talent has never been in doubt. He was an All-Star in his second season. In his third, he was an All-NBA first-teamer who dragged a banged-up, misfit roster to the playoffs almost by himself. But his and his team's ascendancy hit a major speed bump last season, when a combination of bad luck and malaise dropped them into the lottery.
Davis was typically excellent when healthy (he missed 21 games due to a litany of ailments), but his effort - particularly at the defensive end - oscillated from one game to the next, and his teammates followed his lead. This summer, his coach explains, was about intangibles.
"I think that he's more of a vocal leader now," Gentry said. "We have conversations all the time, and we text back and forth all the time this summer, from a standpoint of, leadership-wise, what he should do and how he should advance in that area right there, especially with the new guys."
His teammates have taken notice.
"For being as young as he is, it's crazy to see him reach out as much as he does," said swingman Solomon Hill, who signed on with the Pelicans in the offseason. Hill noted that Davis helped set up unofficial team workouts in Los Angeles.
"That's something different for being a young guy. You see that from most older guys in the league that say something like, 'Coach told me to do this.'"
Davis, for all his otherworldly talent, is taking a decidedly blue-collar approach to this season.
"It's not about having the most talent - this guy averaged this or that," he said. "It's about what he can bring to the table to help our team."
Spoken like a leader.
