Anthony Davis is dealing with a lower-body injury… Yes, again. And it’s starting to feel like a yearly tradition. The star big man, now in his second year with the Dallas Mavericks, went down awkwardly midway through a game against the Suns and immediately reached for his leg.
The fall wasn’t catastrophic, but it was enough to have fans and analysts groaning in unison. We can’t blame anyone since this movie has been playing on repeat for far too long.
Last season, in his very first game as a Maverick, Davis tweaked his ankle after landing awkwardly on a rebound attempt. And that set the tone for much of his debut year in Dallas. He missed chunks of time, returned looking strong, then got hurt again. It’s a cycle that frustrates not just fans, but Davis himself, who’s long been labeled “fragile” despite his elite talent.
Nobody questions his ability. They just wonder how often they’ll actually get to see it. On the latest Road Trippin podcast, former NBA player Channing Frye opened up about the realities he endured dealing with those types of injuries. It had an uncanny correlation with AD’s situation.
“I tried jumping for two years, had to give it up,” Frye said. “But man, tendinitis is debilitating. Your whole knee feels like it’s going to fall off.”
For someone like Davis, who relies on explosive movement, that kind of lingering pain can change everything about how you play. Frye didn’t sugarcoat how tough it is to bounce back from lower-body problems.
“In general, when dealing with lower leg extremities, you’re supposed to be tiny,” he said. “Here’s just an example. Bron, twist the sh** out of his ankle. It was gross. High ankle sprain.” That comparison between LeBron’s ability to keep pushing through injuries and AD’s constant setbacks kind of says it all.
Frye even mentioned how LeBron handled that nasty sprain differently than most players would. “‘I just twist my ankle. We got to change my diet,” Frye recalled Bron saying. “So it was like that. When I saw that, I was like, ‘You are different. You’re a different dude.’”
It’s that mindset to go for a total lifestyle adjustment that separates players who recover quickly from those who never seem to escape the injury bug.
For Davis, that might be the missing piece. It’s not just about icing, stretching, or getting treatment after games anymore. As Frye put it, “If AD is dealing with a lower-leg extremity, whatever it is. That’s a 24-hour thing. It’s not just treatment. It’s a lifestyle change.”
You have to live the recovery — eat, sleep, and even think differently. And honestly, maybe that’s what AD needs at this stage of his career. He’s 32 now, not 25, and his body doesn’t bounce back the same way.
It’s easy for fans to clown him for always being hurt. But Davis plays a physical brand of basketball that punishes big men over time. At some point, you either reinvent your body or your career starts shrinking before your eyes.
The frustrating part is that when he’s healthy, Davis still looks like a top-10 player in the world. He can dominate both ends, guard five positions, and make even elite scorers look helpless. That’s what makes every injury sting more.
It’s not just the games he misses; it’s the greatness we miss seeing. There’s always this lingering ‘what if’ with him.
If Frye’s right, AD’s got to commit to the grind off the court just as hard as he does on it. That means staying light, keeping inflammation down, and finding new ways to preserve that explosiveness.
Davis doesn’t have to be LeBron, but he could definitely take a page out of that longevity playbook. Because at this point, the alternative is another season that ends with an ice pack and a press conference.
Maybe this latest setback will finally be his turning point. Maybe it’s the moment he realizes he can’t just get back out there without making serious changes.
Lower-body injuries don’t just heal. They linger until you build a life around managing them. And if Davis ever figures that part out, we might just see him rewrite the ending of this same-old story.