LeBron James Sounds Off on Anthony Davis’ Trade Demand and Colin Kaepernick’s ‘Sacrifice’ on ‘The Shop’

On Friday night’s episode of The Shop, LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter welcomed a diverse group of guests to their HBO confab: rapper 2 Chainz, actor Jamie Foxx, NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown, and—last but certainly not least—Anthony Davis, the Pelicans’ star big man who is said to have rather controversially demanded a trade to James’ Lakers.

“I think now he’s finally starting to see the momentum shift—on who he is, though,” James said of Davis controlling his own destiny. 

“Yeah, and that’s what it is,” Davis replied. “All the media coverage around me, and now I’m getting the 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 say, ‘Alright, I see AD changing.’ You know? Everybody tellin’ me, ‘You growin’ up. It’s about time you take care of your business, and you gonna take care of your career.’ So now it’s like, as a player, as the CEO of my own business, I got the power. I’m doin’ what I want to do and not what somebody’s tellin’ me to do,” he added.

Later on, James addressed quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s recent settlement in his collusion case against the NFL—one that was reportedly worth between $60 and $80 million.

“Kap’s still for something that was bigger than him. He sacrificed,” said James. “How many people can wake up and say, you know what? I’ll give everything that I’ve worked for my whole life for the better of the conversation. Oh, I’m gonna lose everything I got personally for the better of the conversation. That’s why we can sit here and salute Kap.”

“And I hope that whatever the amount of money he got sets him up for him, his kids, his grandkids, and his grandkids’ kids’ kids. I hope it’s that much money, I really do,” James continued. “Because the beautiful sport was taken away from him. So I hope that whatever the settlement was, it sets generations up forever.”