Anthony Davis says he, LeBron James are ‘very, very motivated’ to win a title

In the midst of likely one of their final seasons together, Anthony Davis and LeBron James remain very focused on winning a title.

In the seasons after the Lakers won the title, one constant was injuries, particularly to their stars. LeBron James and Anthony Davis battled to get on the court together as much as they battled opponents over a multi-year stretch.

But starting with the 2023-24 season, the pair have (knock on wood) had a great run of health that has helped them refocus on the main goal again: winning a title.

In his recent sit-down interview with Shams Charania of ESPN, AD spoke about the motivation for he and LeBron to win a title and some of the reasons behind that.

“One, we want to win it for the city. Two, we never got a parade. Three, there’s a lot talk about an asterisk next to the championship, which I believe was probably the toughest championship to win. Him and I are like very, very motivated to win another championship. That’s what you play for every time you go into a season. It’s not like it’s something that’s talked about or something that’s said just because you say it. We really want to win. I don’t want to leave this game with one championship...I know he wants more. Obviously, the Lakers trying to catch back up to Boston. They have 18, we got 17. All these things matter.”

It seems fairly obvious that they’re motivated to win a title, but that wasn’t always seen as the end goal at times in recent years. For large stretches, it felt like the goal was to simply get the stars on the court for an extended time together. Now, the two can look bigger picture again.

It’s interesting that AD brought up the 2020 season, both in terms of the undeserved asterisk and in not getting a parade. That latter sentiment is one that has been shared by other members of that team, including all the way at the top of that team in head coach Frank Vogel.

AD had plenty to say about how to win another title during this interview. He spoke about wanting the team to trade for a center and waxed about the “perfect” roster construction of that 2019-20 team.

Both AD and LeBron helped walk the walk with the best win of the season on Thursday. Now, the focus from everyone is on title contention.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.