Anthony Davis doesn’t want to play center, and his fingerprints are already all over this Lakers roster as a result

El Segundo, Calif. — If there was one thing made clear on the day the Los Angeles Lakers introduced Anthony Davis as their newest star, it’s that after a year in which LeBron James exuded his own sort of special gravitational pull in terms of attention and power, he now has a counterpart with just as much sway as The King.

Davis was front and center for his introductory press conference, the seven-footer in a dark blue suit with a bedazzled bumblebee drawing every eye in the gym. It was just about the only a time a building with LeBron Freaking James in it will feature nearly every camera turned the other way.

And while some theorized that Davis’ trade request was Klutch Sports’ way of getting James some help, Davis made it clear that after years of doing what he’s told, this move wasn’t about following orders.

It was about going to a place where he could take what’s his.

“I just wanted to take control of my career. There was always people kind of telling me, ‘oh you need to do that, you need to do this.’ And I’d just kind of go with it. I was young, and I was like ‘okay, I feel like this person has the best interests for me’ or whatever,” Davis said as part of a longer answer detailing his months-long trade saga and its place in the history of the player empowerment era.

“But then as I started getting older, started getting more experience, I was like ‘I don’t want to do that. I want to do it this way,’” Davis continued. “As long as I can sleep at night and live with the decisions that I made, then I’m happy and I don’t really care what no one else thinks. I have a great team around me who I can talk to about things that’s going on, and they give me great advice and at the end of the day I’ll live with the decisions I make.”

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The February trade saga was Davis’ version of the scene in a superhero movie where the young protagonist is going through a training montage, testing the limits of their powers. It didn’t go well, but by the time the June climax came around, Davis was ready to exert the full scope of abilities that come with being a superstar.

Over the span of a few weeks, Davis made it clear to the Pelicans he still wanted out, forced his way to the Lakers, and began having phone calls with James and Lakers general manger Rob Pelinka every hour, on the hour.

Davis had used another ability in waiving his $4 million trade kicker to give the Lakers max cap space. That decision — and likely his status as a legit superstar the team wants to build around post-James, in conjunction with his impending free agency — have earned him a seat at the table previously only reserved for James, vetting the Lakers’ roster moves before they made them.

The process was part of what Pelinka has previously said the Lakers view “as partnerships” between the franchise and its two cornerstones.

“Just making sure that when he made that sacrifice that really every dollar would be used in a way that he felt good about,” Pelinka said.

Davis admitted that the original reason he waived his trade kicker was to give the Lakers a chance to pursue Kawhi Leonard — “anytime you’re able to acquire a player like Kawhi, I think you have to do almost everything to get a guy like that,” Davis said — which didn’t work out.

However, his financial sacrifice and stature within the franchise still left him input on how the rest of the team would be filled out, and he wanted the team to go get centers that would eliminate the burden that would come with him needing to play the five consistently

“I like playing the four, I’m not even going to sugarcoat it. I like playing the four, I don’t really like playing the five,” Davis said with a chuckle, before looking over at head coach Frank Vogel and revealing that even if he’s willing to wield his power, he considers this to be an oligarchy rather than a dictatorship.

“But if it comes down to it, Coach, and you need me to play the five, I’ll play the five,” Davis said.

Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

The Lakers want to make sure he doesn’t have to, or at least not very often.

“I’ll just add to that too, when Anthony and I first started talking about the roster, he did say ‘hey, I’d love to have some fives that can bang with some length,’ and he’s 26. We want a decade of dominance out of him here,” Pelinka said. “We’ve got to do what’s best for his body, and having him bang against the biggest centers in the West every night is not what’s best for his body, the team, or the franchise.

“That’s why we were so excited when we got commitments from JaVale McGee, who just with his size and length, him playing at the four and JaVale at the five, that length is extraordinary. And then DeMarcus making a commitment to come here, he complemented and played so well with AD in New Orleans that you could just tell he’s made a commitment to his body and just having a huge year,” Pelinka continued. “We wanted to make sure to honor what Anthony asked for when we traded for him: To get some fives that he could play with.”

Still, Davis isn’t dead-set against playing the five, as evidenced by the fact that he spent 35% of his time there last season, according to Cleaning the Glass. He still spent 65% of his minutes as a power forward, but this at least shows that Davis has been willing to help his teams go small when the matchups are advantageous. Plus, as long as he’s not starting at center, the Lakers can minimize his time going against seven-foot bruisers.

“The game has become so positionless that you can put five guys on the floor and then they just play,” Davis said. “You guys have seen that thing that came out about [LeBron] running the point, obviously that’s a super-tall point guard. So it really doesn’t matter. You just put five guys out there that fits each other best, and go out and win.”

Beyond centers, Davis has a few specific qualities that he likes in his supporting cast.

“Just guys who just want to win. No egos, guys who are all about the team. Obviously one of the things we talked about was the bigs, and also a lot of shooters,” Davis said. He knew a lot of double and triple teams were likely to come his way if the Lakers didn’t space the floor well, and he says the Lakers have at gotten guys that can make opponents think twice about leaving to go swarm him in the paint.

“And then on the defensive end, obviously I think I can guard anybody, but like Rob said, we want to be smart about the situation too. It’s a long season, so having guys like JaVale and DeMarcus alongside me in the frontcourt is definitely a thing that we needed to attack as well,” Davis said.

But while Davis may want to make sure he doesn’t overexert himself on the floor, he was happy to offer one more exertion of the power he holds within the franchise when asked what he thought about the trend of load management in the NBA.

“Oh I’m playing,” Davis said. “I’m 26 years old, I love the game of basketball. I’m ready to play.”

Davis has the stature and the power to make such declarations in Los Angeles. After starting his career doing what others wanted or just playing along, he’s flexed his muscles to force his way to the team he wants, alongside the co-star he grew up idolizing and other teammates of his choice.

Anthony Davis has finally gotten everything he wanted. Now the pressure is on him to deliver, and show why the Lakers were so desperate to give him such power in the first place.

All quotes were obtained firsthand. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.