Report: Anthony Davis wants to play again this season despite Mavericks’ free fall

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Anthony Davis wants to play again this season despite the Dallas Mavericks‘ free fall. 

Davis is recovering from an adductor strain.

Anthony Davis is practicing with the Legends today and is very eager to return from his adductor strain before season’s end, league sources tell @TheSteinLine and @DLLS_Sports.

Whether he actually does return, though, remains TBD amid concern about exposing Davis to re-injury. https://t.co/j16c0u9Bcs

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 17, 2025

Davis played 31 minutes versus the Houston Rockets before getting hurt in his first game with the Mavericks. The Chicago native finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks while shooting 10-of-18 from the field, 2-of-2 from 3 and 4-of-6 from the free-throw line.   

One of the best players in NBA history, Davis has career averages of 24.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.3 blocks with the New Orleans Pelicans, Los Angeles Lakers and Mavericks. He was the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. 

Davis, like everyone in the NBA world, was blindsided by the Mavericks-Lakers trade involving him and superstar Luka Doncic. 

“The front office has to do what it has to do and obviously they’re going to do what’s best for the organization,” Davis told NBA reporter Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “So I don’t know if I ever got the ‘real’ about any of it. I don’t know what’s true or what’s not, coming from upstairs. Everybody’s saying nobody knew and all this other s***. I just don’t believe it.

“They wanted who they wanted. They did what they had to do. I don’t know if they had to, but it’s what they wanted to do. I moved on. I got a wife and kids to worry about, you know what I’m saying? And I’m figuring out how I’m going to get them to Dallas and get adjusted to that.”

The Mavericks are in 10th place in the Western Conference standings with a record of 33-36.

Star point guard Kyrie Irving will miss the rest of the season with an ACL tear.