Anthony Davis Extends Stay with Lakers: Davis will suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers in the next five seasons. This as Davis and the Lakers agreed on a three-year extension – the highest per-season average salary in National Basketball Association history. It means that the 17-time NBA champions will keep the talented power forward/center until the 2027-28 season. Davis’ agreement with the Lakers is also big for sports fans who are keeping tabs of the 30 teams’ latest transactions to determine their NBA betting strategy in the 2023-24 season. Meanwhile, the Charlotte Hornets will start a new era with new owners as Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall acquired the majority stake from six-time league champion Michael Jordan. The development is expected to boost the Hornets’ campaign after several losing seasons.
Anthony Davis Extends Stay with Lakers: Lakers Agree on 3-year, US$186-Million Extension
Davis, an eight-time NBA All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection, agreed to a three-year, US$186-million extension with the Lakers, making him the player with the highest per-season average salary in league history. Klutch Sports Group chief executive officer Rich Paul confirmed the development on Friday. Klutch Sports is Davis’ representative in the NBA. The extension, which has an annual average of US$62 million, becomes the richest annual agreement in NBA history. This eclipses the US$60.8 million per season that the Boston Celtics give to Jaylen Brown as part of his five-year supermax deal worth US$304 million.
The transaction takes effect in the 2025-26 season as Davis will earn US$40.6 million this coming season and US$43.2 million in 2024-25. The extension will conclude in 2027-28, meaning the 6-foot-10 power forward/center will be with the Lakers over the next five seasons. The agreement raises the 30-year-old’s career on-court earnings to almost US$500 million when his contract lapses. Beginning in 2025-26, Davis will make about US$750,000 for every regular season game on the Lakers’ schedule. The big man is a positive influence on the court as he has helped the ballclub win more than 60% of the games (117-77) in the regular season. On the flipside, the squad have gone 53-60 in 113 games without him. When healthy, he and LeBron James form one of the top 1-2 punches in the league. The duo combined forces to help the Lakers win the 2020 championship. This past season, Los Angeles reached the Western Conference Finals but were eventually swept by the Denver Nuggets, who went on to win the 2022-23 NBA title. In 11 seasons, Davis has normed 24 points and 10.4 rebounds and scored at least 50 points in a game five times.
Jordan Finalizes Aale of Hornets Majority Ownership
Six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan has sold his majority ownership of the Charlotte Hornets to the duo of Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall. The development comes with the hope of turning one of the struggling franchises in the league to a contender in the future. The pair of investors finalized the deal on Thursday with Plotkin expressing his readiness to rebuild the Hornets, who has failed to enter the league playoffs over the past seven seasons. According to Plotkin, their motivation is to make Charlotte a contender in the league and will be patient in making the team into a Top 10 or Top 15 franchise.
Focus on Player Development, Analytics
Plotkin pointed out that under their leadership, analytics, player development, strategy and sports performance are priorities of the squad. They are planning to renovate Charlotte’s basketball arena and construct a state-of-the-art practice area. The new owner hopes that these plans would help the team turn around from a losing team to a winner under their management. For his part, Jordan said it was a great honor to own the Hornets, who went 423-600 win-loss under his 13-year ownership and never won a series in the playoffs. He stopped short of explaining his reason of making the deal with Schnall and Plotkin. He will remain as a minority owner of the squad.
Meanwhile, Schnall expressed delight that Jordan would stay as a minority owner and pledged that they will try their best to repay the NBA great with a championship. Plotkin expounded on the player development aspect by saying that the Hornets should develop their original talents and build a winning culture within. If the process becomes successful, big-name free agents would possibly include Charlotte as a destination.
Plotkin and Schnall had previous experiences in NBA operations as they previously served as alternate governors on the league’s board of governors. Schnall, who is the co-president of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC, was a former minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks and was part of the Hawks’ team-building process and the reconstruction work at the State Farm Arena. Plotkin, on the other hand, was the founder and chief investment officer of Tallwoods Capital LLC. He previously acquired a minority stake in the Hornets in 2019.
Other Members of the Hornets Ownership Group
Aside from the two majority stakeholders, the new ownership group also includes Chris Shumway, Dan Sundheim, Ian Loring, Andrew Schwartzberg, Dyal Home Court Partners, North Carolina natives recording artist J. Cole and country music singer-songwriter Eric Church, as well as several local Charlotte investors, including Amy Levine Dawson and Damian Mills. The ownership change is expected to bring in a new atmosphere for the Hornets, which are hoping to build a winning culture. They also hope to gain more followers in online sites that feature the latest sports picks and parlays on the NBA scene.
