Larry Brown Sports

Anthony Davis has been unable to travel with the New Orleans Hornets this weekend after he was inadvertently elbowed in the head by teammate Austin Rivers during Friday’s win over the Utah Jazz. This has annoyed Hornets coach Monty Williams, because Davis supposedly feels fine but has to undergo a series of tests before he is cleared to return to the team, per NBA policy.

Before Saturday’s game against the Chicago Bulls, Williams ripped the league for its concussion policy.

“Now, they treat everybody like they have white gloves and pink drawers and it’s getting old,” Williams said according to the Miami Herald. “It’s just the way the league is now. It’s a man’s game. They’re treating these guys like they’re 5 years old. He desperately wanted to come (to Chicago), but he couldn’t make it.”

Like the NFL, the NBA is also working to counter the long-term effects of concussions by taking precautions such as administering tests. But according to Williams, the NBA is not the NFL.

“I’m not saying I don’t like (the policy),” he explained. “We’ve got to protect the players, but I think the players should have more say-so in how they feel. I’m sure I had four or five concussions when I played, and it didn’t bother me. The NBA is doing what’s necessary to protect the players, but this is not the NFL. You don’t get hit in the head that much. I understand it. But as a coach, I’m a baby about it. I want my guys ready to play.”

While Williams is right that Davis and other NBA players are grown men who can take care of themselves (for the most part), professional athletes have been known to admit that they play through concussions. NFL players even joke about fudging the sideline tests during games, so the NBA is trying to avoid that type of problem.

The more precautions the league takes with concussions, the less players wind up with poor quality of life when they retire. Oh yeah, and less lawsuits.

Photo credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

When Halloween comes around, most of the focus tends to be on the entertaining costumes that athletes come up with. Every once in a while, however, someone steals the show by dressing like an athlete. That someone this year is rapper Ludacris.

As you can see from the photos that he shared on his Instagram account, Luda dressed as Hornets rookie Anthony Davis. Naturally, he made the unibrow a point of emphasis. He didn’t do it quite so eloquently as this dude did with his chest hair, but for a Halloween costume it definitely went above and beyond.

Does Ludacris’ Anthony Davis get-up get the nod over Alex Morgan’s McKayla Maroney costume? We’ll call it a tie.

H/T Buzzfeed

Despite “severely” spraining his ankle last week, an injury that was thought to keep him out for the Olympics, Hornets’ No. 1 overall draft pick Anthony Davis reportedly still plans to participate at Team USA’s training camp in hopes of securing one of the final 12 spots for the team that heads to London.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Davis’ ankle injury isn’t as serious as once thought, but he is still expected to miss seven to 10 days. He’ll report to USA Basketball’s training camp in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

The final roster is set to be announced as part of a selection show on NBA TV on Saturday, meaning that the 15 finalists have just a couple days to prove they can play basketball, or something. However, nine players reportedly are already assured of making the cut. Those nine are reportedly LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler. As it very well should be.

By simple math, that means the remaining six players — Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gay, James Harden, Eric Gordon and Davis — will be duking it out for the final three spots.

Even though Davis is expected not to participate in any practices before Saturday’s selection show, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski will reportedly remain patient with Davis. And after Lamar Odom dropped out of contention earlier this week, in addition to the rash of injuries, Team USA might have no other choice, given how thin they are in front court depth.

Note: This post also appeared on Yardbarker’s Medal Detector blog

If Team USA’s players continue to drop as the London Olympics draw nearer — particularly the big men — Mike Krzyzewski may have to put very little thought into picking the final roster. Just a few days after Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade officially announced they will not be making the trip to London, center Anthony Davis has reportedly also been crossed off the list.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Davis “suffered a severely sprained ankle in a Hornets workout and is almost assuredly unable to play for Team USA.” Davis may have already been considered a long shot to make the team because of his lack of experience at the professional level, but with a number of injuries already having piled up his chances were looking better every day.

With Bosh, Dwight Howard, and LaMarcus Aldridge already out with injuries, Team USA’s front court is starting to become a legitimate concern. Tyson Chandler is the only actual center remaining among the roster finalists, and unless someone like DeMarcus Cousins is a late add-on Coach K will be relying on guys like Kevin Love to fill in at that position.

Despite Derrick Rose being out, Team USA is still loaded with talent at the guard and small forward position. However, they could run into trouble against a team like Spain who has a good front court with Marc and Pau Gasol. Now that the opening ceremonies are less than a month away, Team USA can hardly afford to sustain anymore injuries to their big men.

Photo credit: Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Anthony Davis and Thomas Robinson are expected to be the top two picks in the upcoming NBA draft. Though Davis is the consensus No. 1 pick and expected to be a franchise-changing player, Robinson believes he should be the top pick. The former Kansas forward even took a shot at Davis earlier this month after Davis was seen wearing a T-shirt that said “Check my stats.”

“If you wanted to check the stats, then I’d be the No. 1 pick easily — if that’s what you want to do,” Robinson said, according to Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated. “I should get one of those shirts. I’ll get a shirt that says, ‘Numbers don’t lie.’”

Based on that back-and-forth, it looked like there was a beef brewing between the players. Not so, says Davis.

“There is no feud,” he told The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday, laughing at the question.

“He’s the coolest guy and most positive guy I’ve ever met,” Davis continued. “I don’t know if he has a feud with me, but I have no feud with him.”

When asked specifically about the T-shirt quote, Davis brushed it aside.

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Anthony Davis is known for his unibrow as much as he’s known for his dominant play and incredible shot-blocking ability. The expected No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft also appears to have some business acumen.

According to CNBC, Davis trademarked two unibrow-related phrases earlier this month: “Fear the brow,” and “Raise the Brow.”

“I don’t want anyone to try to grow a unibrow because of me and then try to make money off of it,” Davis told CNBC. “Me and my family decided to trademark it because it’s very unique.”

We first took notice of Davis’ prominent eyebrow last November during Kentucky’s second game of the season. It just took off from there, especially with Davis dominating on the court.

One Kentucky fan shaved a unibrow into his chest, while others put it on a T-shirt and posters. Davis said in March he was enjoying all the brow attention, and we know his mom was too.

Davis made it clear in April that his unibrow was here to stay. Looks like he wasn’t kidding; He knows a good business opportunity when he sees one.

Chest bump to Black Sports Online
Photo Credit: Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE

It takes a special talent to be invited to try out for Team USA before ever stepping foot on the court during an NBA game. In 2007, the invitation was extended to Kevin Durant. Durant accepted the invitation but, as expected, fell short of making the team. This year, Kentucky phenom Anthony Davis has been invited to work out with the U.S. Olympic team. While Team USA is in need of size with Dwight Howard injured, Andrew Bynum not interested, and LaMarcus Aldridge potentially out, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo says it is unlikely that Davis will make the final roster.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Colangelo described Davis’ chances as a “long shot” before adding that it could help that the team is loaded with scorers and deeper in the back court than the front court.

“He’s not a guard competing for a guard position where we’re reasonably deep,” Colangelo said. “We don’t have any shortage of scorers. Anthony has a chance to make his mark sooner rather than later just by rebounding, defending, getting up and down the court, being a team player. He doesn’t have to score.”

Colangelo said the chances are slim because Davis is inexperienced, which will in all likelihood keep him off the roster. With only 12 players traveling to London, a kid fresh out of college would have to blow the coaching staff away to be chosen over other NBA veterans. The last thing you want to do is hurt a player’s confidence before he even plays an NBA game, so we expect Davis to remain in the States. The experience, however, can only help his progression.

H/T SLAM Online via Pro Basketball Talk
Photo credit: Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE