AD says it’s a real possibility he is a Pelican next season

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NEW ORLEANS -- Anthony Davis says he has no regrets about his decision to ask for a trade from the Pelicans, but he acknowledges there is still a possibility he could start next season in New Orleans."I'm under contract still," Davis said during an end-of-year news conference on Wednesday. "I have a year left. Obviously it's a possibility it could happen. I don't have ill will towards anybody. I know that it's a possibility that next year I could be here as well. So I can't be mad if I'm here next year." Davis acknowledged that the entire season -- and the ongoing saga surrounding his impending departure -- was strange. "It got pretty wild," Davis said. "It's over with now. Just see what the future holds." Davis says he must wait to see whom the Pelicans hire as general manager. Dell Demps was fired in February, and Danny Ferry has been the interim GM. "Seeing what happens," Davis said. "Seeing who the Pelicans make their GM and having a conversation with that person about the future. My time here has always been great. I love playing here. It's something that I will definitely hold in my heart forever, but the next step is waiting on the Pelicans [to fill] that GM job." Davis' decision to wear a "That's All Folks" T-shirt to Tuesday night's regular-season finale against the Golden State Warriors quickly went viral, but Davis said he wasn't the one who picked out the Looney Tunes shirt. "I didn't choose it," Davis said. "I actually didn't choose it. It was hanging for me already when I put my clothes on." Davis couldn't recall who chose the shirt, but he said he loved all the characters from Looney Tunes. "I love them all," Davis said. "I'm a big cartoon guy. Looney Tunes is actually my favorite." Davis said he saw and heard some of the reaction from people on the internet after the game."I saw some stuff," Davis said. "Well, I heard some stuff actually. Heard some stuff about Space Jam, I heard some stuff about [how] this is a shot at the Pelicans, 'Oh, this is his last game.' I heard it all, but it doesn't matter to me." Wednesday morning had the feel of a Davis farewell at the Pelicans' practice facility. Davis walked around with several of his jerseys, passing them out to people throughout the building. As Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday spoke to the media, Davis laid one of his jerseys around Holiday's shoulder. "Say good things about me," Davis said. "Always, bruh," Holiday responded. "I said you wasn't leaving." Davis turned his head a little but barely broke stride as the media members surrounding Holiday laughed. "To me, he's [one of] the top three players in the world," Holiday said. "So it wouldn't be that strange. I've played with him for six years. Hopefully I can play with him for more than that [if] he doesn't get traded this summer. ... I'd love to play with him. I don't think it's weird at all if he were to come back and play. I know what he's here for. I know he's here to play basketball at the end of the day. Yeah, he takes his situation into his own hands, but when he's on the court with us, I know what he's here to do." Davis, who has been linked to the Los Angeles Lakers since making his request earlier in the year, was asked what he thought of Lakers president Magic Johnson's abrupt resignation on Tuesday night. "I have no idea what's going on over there," Davis said. "What's going on with the Lakers -- I got a lot of other stuff to worry about." Does Johnson's resignation change the way he feels about the Lakers? "No," Davis said. "A great organization. Just like 29 other organizations. I have nothing to do with that." Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry believes the league office will look at the Davis situation and try to find better ways for teams to handle similar situations in the future. "I think there's something that will be talked about in the league office," Gentry said. "Obviously it's something that's very disruptive to a franchise and to a team. And I think it's something that's going to have to be dealt with. That will be something that has to happen in the league office." Though it remains unclear whom the Pelicans will hire for their GM role and whether that GM will bring Gentry back for a fifth season, the veteran coach is confident there will be a resolution in the Davis situation this summer. Gentry told his team after Wednesday's loss to the Warriors that he believed the group could go to the playoffs next season. "We're not going to have that situation again," Gentry said of the hoopla surrounding Davis' potential exit. "And I think obviously if that situation is not here, it's for the betterment of the team. It's not anything that anyone would would want to go through again. But I thought everybody here handled it as good as they possibly could handle it. I thought the players did and everybody else did also from that standpoint. But it's not something that's going to be here next year, so I think because of that it gives you an opportunity to be good." Veteran Solomon Hill noted that while he believes Davis "loves the city" of New Orleans, it's always difficult when a player and a city break up. "I think they both have a difficult situation," he said, "where the city is going to miss them and he's going to miss the city. But it's never easy in this business when it's a business, because when an organization makes a move, that's on the organization and they do what's best for the team ... but when somebody, a player, does what's best for his family, it's kind of looked at as a bad thing. I hate that he gets that perception. I saw the same thing with PG [Paul George], but they're both doing something huge. I think PG saying that he wanted to relocate, AD saying that he wanted to relocate gives the team a chance to get assets for him. He could've easily just been quiet and walked in free agency, but he actually wants to work with the team to find a location and also help them as well." Davis said the "toughest part" for him the last few months was having his minutes reduced as the Pelicans figured out how they wanted to handle the situation after the deadline passed. "Obviously I want to play the game of basketball," Davis said. "And then have to adjust to playing 20, 21 minutes was something new for me, but I understood where the organization was coming from. Obviously it's a business, but any time you take something away from a player, it's always tough to kind of handle. I've never been a guy to sit the fourth quarter, play 20 minutes. That was different for me, so I had to adjust to it and make the most out of it." Davis acknowledged that he felt all sides could have handled various parts of the saga differently. "I think in everything you do, there's always something to learn," Davis said. "I haven't really sat back and thought about any of that yet. But it's something that I'll go back and look at and reflect on. If it has, I'll say to myself and the people around me and see if something happens again what we can do better and go from there." When asked if he had anything else to say to Pelicans fans, Davis spoke as if he knew his time with the organization was coming to an end. "Obviously my time here was amazing," Davis said. "I love the fans, the city ... it was an amazing time here. I loved playing here. Always have a special place in my heart [for New Orleans]. You never know what might happen later in your career. This is definitely, for seven years, been a place where I love to play."

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