Coming out of Game 5 of the Los Angeles Lakers’ second round series against the Golden State Warriors, the biggest talking point was the health of Anthony Davis. The Lakers’ star big man left the game in the fourth quarter after taking a shot to the side of the head from Warriors center Kevon Looney.
When looking at the play itself, it didn’t look like Davis took an extremely hard blow to the head. But as any fight fans would know, the location of the shot as well as not seeing it coming can have a huge effect and lead to issues. But this idea was not something that was on the mind of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Thursday morning.
On ESPN’s First Take, Smith could not fathom the idea that Davis could have been seriously hurt or potentially suffered a concussion on the play in question and was laughing at the idea that the Lakers big man needed to be helped off the court, via Arash Markazi of The Sporting Tribune:
It’s wild that this is the conversation on a national talk show in 2023 the day after a player looks like they may have been knocked out of a playoff game due to a concussion. pic.twitter.com/SCrMDthGpz
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 11, 2023
But after receiving much backlash Smith took to his Twitter page to apologize for the segment:
Blow back is Blow back. Comes with the territory, peeps. I was in no way minimizing the seriousness of a concussion. I was questioning whether Anthony Davis really had one, considering the play I saw & other hits I’ve seen him absorb. But, bottom line, it was wrong for me to do.…
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) May 11, 2023
Thankfully for Davis it looks as if he avoided any serious injury, but the idea of laughing at the possibility of a concussion is simply wrong. And it is hard to believe that Davis’ injury history didn’t play a role in the questioning of the severity of his head injury.
Davis being injury-prone and in the eyes of some, ‘soft’ likely lead to many thinking he was over-exaggerating the blow. But in the end, laughing or brushing off potential head injuries is simply something that can not happen.
Anthony Davis expected to be available for Lakers’ Game 6 vs. Warriors
While Anthony Davis did have to leave Game 5, the Lakers doctors were able to run tests and the big man avoided suffering a concussion. The latest reports state that Davis is expected to be available for the Lakers in Game 6 on Friday night.
Had Davis suffered a concussion, there would have been a protocol for him to go through before he would have been cleared to return, but that won’t be the case and it looks as if he will be ready to go in the biggest game of the Lakers’ season.
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