NBA Finals: The winners and losers from the bubble championship

Winner: Anthony Davis

It’s never the prettiest when a player demands a trade, especially when it’s a superstar.

New Orleans never really got the chance to burn AD’s jersey or get really mad because the same draft lottery that saw the Lakers jump up to fourth (giving them enough ammunition to trade for the big man) also saw NOLA steal the No. 1 overall draft pick, eventually becoming Zion Williamson.

While Davis got to play with his Klutch Sports teammate in LeBron and head to LA, New Orleans was already thinking about their future with Zion, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and the haul of draft picks they got.

If there were any AD doubters or fans annoyed at his choice, they should all be very tight-lipped at the moment. He just won a title on a one-seeded Lakers team whose over/under projection was set at 50 before the start of the season.

He defended once again at a high level in the Finals, highlighted by an elite showing out in Game 6, somehow tagging the roll-man while also corralling the ball-handler and doing an incredible job.

On top of that, he’s also being put on every NBA social media page’s ‘all-time best NBA duo’s’ posts. He and LeBron make a tandem that we will remember for a long, long time and if AD wants to return to LA past this season, he could seriously cement himself as the next great Laker big man.