Washington Wizards forward Anthony Davis recently went on “The Draymond Green Show” and said the door is “closed” in terms of a possible return to the New Orleans Pelicans.

In the one-hour, 40-minute podcast episode published on Wednesday, Davis gave Green his unfiltered side of an ugly breakup between him and the team that selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. It’s the first time he said he’s done so publicly.

Davis told Green he wanted to move on from New Orleans and compete for an NBA championship, and his breaking point in the Crescent City was when he wasn’t named an NBA All-Star starter one season when he knew he had earned the honor but didn’t receive it because of the team’s lack of success.

“You know, when you first come in the league, it’s like, ‘Hey, look. I’m getting my money. I just want to get my bread. I just want to get paid,’” Davis said. “And then, at some point, it switches like, ‘Alright. I’m trying to win.’”

The trade request

He said after two playoff appearances with the Pelicans, he tried to privately make a trade request with then-general manager Dell Demps.

“It just wasn’t getting done,” Davis said.

So, the request became public.

“That’s when I did the media interview after practice and told them, ‘I want to be traded,’” Davis said.

The news of Davis’ request came out on Jan. 28, 2019. On Feb. 15, the Pelicans fired Demps.

“At this point, I was already the villain,” Davis said, “but now I’m the problem? The GM gets fired [like] a week later after I ask for a trade, but I’m the problem?”

Davis said the organization told him they could not find the right deal for him. He continued to play, but the Pelicans began benching him. Interim general manager Danny Ferry told Davis he was going to play 18-20 minutes a game.

“As a basketball player, if someone tells you you’re going to play 15 minutes, you’re bound to get hurt,” Davis said.

The University of Kentucky one-and-done star sat for the final seven games of the season due to back spasms.

Davis mentioned how he got fined $50,000 for making a public trade request.

“When a team is tired of a player, they can trade him with no consequence,” Davis said. “Right? But once a player is like, ‘I want to do what’s best for me, because I want to compete for championships and win.’ It’s not even about the money. New Orleans offered me a crazy deal at the time. It’s not even about the money; I genuinely want to win. So now, because I want to win, I’m considered a villain to this team and to this fanbase. To this day, I still go back, and they still boo me.”

No video tribute

Green, who has already publicly scolded the Pelicans’ home atmosphere in the Smoothie King Center earlier this season, then injected his opinion.

“Yup,” Green said. “That’s why they’re still losing.”

Davis laughed.

“You don’t boo the best player in your franchise’s history,” Green said. “You appreciate him.”

That’s when Davis told Green he never got a video tribute when he returned to the Smoothie King Center.

“I told Ms. [Pelicans owner Gayle] Benson, when I was going to her right before the deadline to ask for a trade, I told her, ‘Ms. B, I want to get out of here, these are the reasons,’” Davis said. “Ms. B was cool. Ms. B and I are still cool to this day. And I told her, ‘This might not be the end, though. Later on in my career, who knows if I were to come back, and we try to do something special as I’m older, mature, game developed, win a couple of championships, I don’t know.

“I left that door open. And when I went back that first game and got no tribute, I said, ‘Oh, that door is closed.’”

That’s All Folks

Davis then addressed his viral “That’s All Folks” T-shirt he wore on the sideline at his last home game as a Pelican.

“Those last three months, two months of the season were rough. It was rough. Obviously, I wore the shirt. I wore the shirt and all — like, I get it,” Davis said, referring to the boos he receives in New Orleans now.

Many fans have also expressed how they didn’t like how Davis never thanked the city on social media after being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. The lack of public gratitude to Pelicans fans was not addressed in the interview.

Pelicans fans, breathe easy. Anthony Davis
will leave something special just for you as he exits: “I will
always have love for the city of NO. When that time comes I am
going to definitely have a heartwarming message for them and put it
out on Instagram like everybody else does.”

— Sean Deveney (@SeanDeveney)
February 16, 2019

“You know, [New Orleans] had a storm, I saw the video of where they had the hurricane, and everybody cleared out the grocery store, and it was just like my Ruffles that were still there. The only ones in there. I’ve seen all of that, but it’s like none of that ever bothered me. I get it, it was a bad breakup … for the fans, I get it. Your best player’s leaving. Nobody wants that.

“But then, at the time when I was there, [the fans were saying], ‘We can’t get AD any help! Who are these guys we are signing?’” He said. “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You can’t say, ‘We’re not getting him help,’ and then get mad when he’s leaving because he decides to leave because he wants to win.”

Returning to boos

Davis said that returning to New Orleans for the first time was emotional for him.

“Going back, I was just here for seven years, and I come out, and I hear ‘BOOOO,’” Davis said. “I’m talking about loud, all boos. So I’m sitting on the bench, and I’m looking up. They’re calling the starting lineups, and they’re like ‘Anthony Davis,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh s——. Ain’t nothing on the screen …’ There wasn’t even a graphic that said, ‘Thank you.’”

Davis said it hurt him.

“Y’all taking the last two months and making it seem like it was the entire seven years,” he said. “Then, you had all the announcers and reporters saying, ‘Oh, they rolled out the red carpet for AD.’ No, they did not. They didn’t do anything. They tried to offer me the max contract, but at that point, I was like, ‘It’s not about the money. I’m trying to win.’”

2019 NBA Draft

Even after his trade request, Davis said he met with new Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin. He asked for one major thing.

“Listen,” he said. “If you can get Ja Morant at 1, then we have a real conversation going on because I know how it’s going to help our team with Jrue [Holiday].”

Griffin then told Davis no, he had to take Zion Williamson, who plays the same position as Davis.

‘New Orleans was me’

“I always wanted to be the guy that sticks with a franchise for their entire career,” he said. “This last year [being traded twice] like this s—- is crazy, but I always thought I was going to finish in New Orleans. Start in New Orleans, finish in New Orleans and never go anywhere. When we just didn’t align on our goals as far as winning, it just took a bad turn.

“But we had to do some things, like be loud in the media. I had to go out and be a villain, and Rich [Paul] had to say what he had to say in order for [the trade] to get done. I think, now, people are starting to see and understand a little bit, but they didn’t see it at the time, which was seven years ago. So, I mean, it is what it is …

“It’s tough because I met all my friends, to this day, from New Orleans. My chef, my stylist, everybody I knew was only in New Orleans, bro. Like, New Orleans was me … it’s all I knew from 19 to 26.”