In the heated debate about greatest freshman seasons in NCAA basketball history, you could make a case for Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Durant or Zion Williamson, but this much is certain: There has never been one quite like the alien invasion of Anthony Davis at Kentucky. From his arrival in the summer of 2011 until his departure in the spring of 2012, AD was a one-eyebrowed wonder.
He led the nation in PER, win shares, box plus/minus, offensive rating and defensive rating. He averaged 14.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.7 blocks and 1.4 steals, set an unbreakable NCAA freshman record for rejections (186) and led the Wildcats to a national championship. He won national freshman of the year, defensive player of the year, player of the year and Final Four MOP, all while taking the fourth-most shots on the team, as John Calipari loves to point out.
After that lone season in college, Davis became the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, won an Olympic gold medal, earned eight All-Star appearances (so far) and claimed his first NBA championship alongside LeBron James last season with the Lakers. As he prepares to defend that title, already one of the most decorated basketball players of all time, this is The Brow’s origin story.
The legend actually begins in the summer of 2010, shortly after his famous growth spurt from a 6-foot-3 guard to a 6-foot-10 forward in barely a year, when a grassroots tournament in Merrillville, Indiana, changed Davis’ life. He had almost committed to the only Division I program that had offered him a scholarship, Cleveland State, a few months earlier.
Kenny Payne, UK assistant coach: Everyone in Chicago was telling me he’s going to be the best player in the country. I told Cal, “We gotta go see this kid. He’s supposed to be the next big thing and we need to lay eyes on him.” So the whole time we’re there watching him, Cal is hollering, “Wow! He’s Marcus Camby! He’s Marcus Camby!”
Calipari: I knew without even asking that, like Marcus Camby, he must’ve been about 6-3 and grew real big, real fast, because he had those guard skills. He was skinny. Real skinny. But you saw how he moved and the way he blocked shots. And the last time I had a Marcus Camby, we barely lost a game. We had to have him.
In ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary on Calipari, Davis says the Hall of Fame coach pulled up in his rough Chicago neighborhood for an in-home recruiting visit driving a Hummer.
Calipari: I think they exaggerated that some. We might’ve had a driver, but it wasn’t like we came in a stretch limo. Well, I don’t think we did. Maybe we did. I think they were just surprised that I wasn’t afraid to come into that neighborhood. That doesn’t ever affect me. I’m comfortable in those settings and want the families to know I’m comfortable in those settings.
Payne: We came in a rental car, nothing special. But the neighborhood, I don’t want to say it was dangerous, but it was suspicious. They had a big fence so that nobody could look in. Anthony had a basketball goal in the middle of the back yard and the fence was so tall you could barely see it.
Calipari: Everything that has happened for me and my family is based on the fact that African American mothers and fathers and grandmothers and aunts and uncles have trusted me with their children, so in those settings I want them to know I’m not going to embellish, I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to promise anything, but I’m going to take care of that child and help him chase his dreams.
Payne: Cal went inside to talk with the family and the kid pulled me outside to watch him shoot. That’s the first time I got the chance to tell him, “Look, you’re a $100 million player, and it’ll be my job to push you every single day to make sure you become that guy. We will never see the best of you, won’t even come close, but we’ll give you the foundation to be a $100 million player.”
Calipari: He didn’t want anything handed to him. He didn’t care about hearing that he was going to start or play so many minutes or get so many shots. “Coach, it doesn’t matter. I just want to win.”
Payne: While we’re talking, he’s shooting and I’m watching. He shot the ball from his left ear all the way across his face into a follow-through on the right side. I’m like, “Anthony, you’ve got to shoot the ball through your right eye.” That’s all I said. He shoots another 15 balls and he’s asking me, “Like this? Like this?” Yep, that’s it. So maybe three weeks later, he comes to campus for an unofficial visit and he runs into the office and grabs me. “KP, you gotta see this! I got a surprise for you!”
He takes me down to the court and starts shooting, and his shot is cured. I mean, he’d totally fixed it. In all my years working with kids, I’ve never seen a player correct something so quickly.
Davis in 2019: Cal said some of the realest things I’ve ever heard from a coach and Kenny told my mom and dad he’d take care of me. He kept his word to my parents. He watched over me and made sure I was good.
Darius Miller, forward: Ant was dominating from the first time he got on campus. It was pretty crazy.
Kyle Wiltjer, forward: We did some physical testing and they put the vertical test by the backboard. They couldn’t get the stick high enough for Anthony, so when he jumped, he just went up and tapped the top of the backboard. It was totally ridiculous.
Jon Hood, guard: He’s an alien.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, forward: There was just an aura around AD. We’ve never seen a person like him, who can handle it the way he does at that size, defend the way he defends, make shots the way he does. We got a taste of it that summer, because that was the lockout year in the NBA and Cal invited all those pros to the Craft Center to work out. We got a chance to see what we could do against them in pickup games.
Miller: AD handled himself really well. He competed, really went at them, loved every minute of it. Knowing the expectations we had for that season, it was great to see.
Hood: LeBron came. Rondo came. The Big Three from the Thunder came: Durant, Westbrook, Harden. Watching AD play against guys like that was special. He was just dunking everything. And obviously nobody could guard Durant, but Anthony was the first one to try. He didn’t say, ‘I got KD,’ but he walked out and stood right next to him like, ‘I got you.’ And AD made Durant work. He still scored, because he’s one of the greatest scorers of all time, but it took three, four, five moves to score on AD — who was 18 at the time. It was just two aliens looking at each other going, “What planet is this guy from?”
Bo Rodriguez, equipment manager: One day, I hear a rumble. Then a banging on the equipment room door. Then a dull roar. I’m like, “What the hell is going on?” I peek out and it’s like that zombie show: arms and legs sticking through the door. What in the world? I push my way out and it’s wall-to-wall people in the practice gym, in the hallway, everywhere. I call the police and fire department to get everybody out of there because it’s not safe and I know our guys and all the NBA guys are in the building.
After everyone is cleared out and it’s calmed down, Cal comes in and says, “Let me see your phones. Open ‘em up. I need to check ‘em. Who tweeted it?” We were all freaking out until one of the managers goes, “No, look, LeBron tweeted that he was here.” I looked at the timestamp and within five minutes of that tweet was when I was calling the police. In that short amount of time, it had turned into a circus.
JUST GOT DONE HOOPING AT UK WITH THE TEAM, AND ALUM RONDO,@EBLED24 @BOOGIECOUSINS! GREAT RUN! #BIGBLUENATION
— LEBRON JAMES (@KINGJAMES) SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
Payne: What we were hearing about their pickup games with our guys, you could tell there was something special brewing. They were trash-talking those pros. You kidding me? You rarely see college guys going right back at NBA guys like that.
Durant in 2012: Everybody on our team said they’re the best team in the country. They’re really, really good, man.
Rodriguez: All I knew about AD at the time was the story about his growth spurt. He was so thin, so quiet, didn’t smile a lot. Not to embarrass him, but he needed some dental work done and so he was really shy when he got there. You wondered how that was going to play out in the alpha world. But then all the NBA guys showed up to our gym and you started to see the lion come out.
You don’t know what he really is until you see guys like LeBron and Durant and Westbrook grab the ball and stop the game and go, “Wow, Anthony, how did you do that?” Those guys have seen everything under the sun in basketball, but when you get in the air and you go Gumby, where your heels and your hands are basically touching, arched the wrong way, backward, catching impossible lobs, even the other great players recognize that you’re a freak of nature.
Miller: There were definitely AD Rules in practice. There were a bunch of drills that just didn’t really go as planned when Anthony was out there, so you had to alter them. There was a two-on-one transition drill he just wrecked.
Will Martin, student manager who became Davis’ personal trainer (now Missouri Western head coach): The beginning of the drill was almost a formality. You had the two offensive players and one guy would throw it over the top of the defender’s head and then it would be a two-on-one drill from there. So one day, one of the first few weeks of practice, AD is the defender and I think MKG throws it over. AD just jumped up and grabbed it. No one’s ever done that because one, no one is capable of that, and two, your mind registers that, “OK, as soon as the ball is thrown, I’m getting back on defense.” Well, AD jumped up and just grabbed it.
Cal stopped practice. “We’re gonna have to change the rules. We’re going to have to call it the AD Rule or something.”
Calipari: There were a lot of things Anthony changed. Some drills he ruined completely, so instead of changing the drill, you just took him out. “Come over here for a second and stand with me.” You just knew he was a generational type of player. I may not ever coach another one like him.
Payne: We still had plenty of work to do, though. He was so skinny and he didn’t have any post offense at all when we started. I told him exactly what was going to happen. “You’re so light that if we throw you the ball in the post and you get bumped, you’re going to throw up a BS shot and fall down and Cal’s going to stop practice and tell your teammates, ‘Don’t ever throw him the ball in there again.’ ”He’s looking at me like, “Come on, man, he ain’t gonna do that.” First day of practice, what do you think happened? Exactly, to a T, what I said. From that day on, Anthony said, “OK, I get it. I have to work on my craft.”
Davis: I was very, very raw. I was like a baby giraffe that just came out of the womb — the way they walk, wobbling around on their skinny legs. I remember I wanted to work out by myself with the strength coach because I wasn’t as strong as the other guys and I didn’t want to embarrass myself. KP still has me saved in his phone as Baby Giraffe.
Rodriguez: He knew he was really tall and long but also really thin, so we were going to have to get him a 3X and it was going to fit him like a blanket. The only request he ever had was not to have his arms out. He wanted a T-shirt or some kind of sleeves under the jersey. He was self-conscious about how skinny his arms were back then.
Preston Spradlin, graduate assistant (now Morehead State head coach): The rate at which he put on weight and got stronger and got better was incredible. I can remember John Robic routinely hitting us with a, “Holy shit, this guy’s good!” We were all just kind of in awe. He was just constantly transforming before our eyes.
It’s not like Davis eased onto the scene at Kentucky either. He had 23 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and three assists in his first college game, albeit against Marist. He validated the hype with 14 points, seven blocks, six boards and two steals in a win over Kansas at Madison Square Garden in his second game.
But everyone agrees on the moment that truly signaled his arrival: a game-saving swat of 6-foot-9 North Carolina star John Henson’s jumper on Dec. 3, 2011, a play on which Davis helped off his man and covered the width of the lane in a blink to erase a seemingly unblockable shot.
Spradlin: That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard Rupp Arena. It was just deafening. That play right there is just the epitome of who he is: He can affect the game without scoring, and on the biggest stage, in the biggest of moments, he can make any type of play you need to win the game. I don’t even know how many other players could have blocked that shot. Are there any?
Miller: That was probably a moment that changed how all of us thought about not only him but the rest of our season. We believed we were good before that game, but it solidified in our minds: We can beat anybody, and we’ve got a guy that nobody else does.
Martin: Everything that makes this kid different from an intangible standpoint, now he’s putting it together tangibly. Now he’s on the stage and he’s exuding those gifts. We’re seeing the AD Rules in action in front of 24,000 people, against North Carolina.
Wiltjer: That was his official coming-out party.
Hood: Everyone knows about the block, but not many people realize the drama that happened afterward. The lockout was still going and so John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins were there, sitting across from our bench, about two rows up. We win the game and everybody goes crazy and we’re celebrating in our locker room when DeMarcus comes in and looks at AD and just starts giggling. Then he takes off running to the training room.
He comes back with athletic tape wrapped around two fingers, sticky side out, and comes right at Anthony. He says, “Hold still a minute,” and grabs him by the head and tries to wax the unibrow. AD is shielding his face and screaming, ‘No, no, no, no!’ I don’t think he was ever really going to take the brow, but he was just letting Anthony know he was in the club, he was one of those guys at Kentucky. He had Boogie’s respect, which not a lot of people have. It was kind of a coronation.
Kidd-Gilchrist: Ant’s eyebrow was just legendary, and eventually he understood that. But at first he really didn’t think nothing of it. That was just him. I’d be like, “Why not just cut it off?” and he’d say, “Can’t do that. It’s me.”
Sam Malone, guard: He definitely became aware that people had “The Brow” signs and T-shirts and were gluing unibrows on their faces. He wanted to make it part of his brand. He could’ve easily just taken a razor and shaved between his eyebrows, but he knew it made him stand out.
There was one practice where he was missing one of his front teeth because it either fell out or got knocked out or he had to get it replaced, and I remember looking over at him and just laughing to myself at the idea that one of the best basketball players on the planet is out here missing a tooth and he’s got a unibrow. What a sight. I hope he doesn’t get mad at me for saying that.
Martin: Nobody ever made fun of AD. I don’t think it was because people feared him, but there was just an immense amount of respect for him.
Kidd-Gilchrist: He stayed humble. Ant is a unique basketball player, but he’s also a very, very special person.
Rodriguez: He had a good mom and dad, because they clearly raised him not to be entitled in any way. He treated everyone, whether it was a teammate or a coach or a manager or the fans, with the utmost respect. He was so unbelievably easy to deal with. Just an awesome kid.
Hood: That’s how I remember him, as a big kid.
Malone: He would stay up all hours. He called it “Vampire Time” or the “Vampire Hours.” He’d wake up in the middle of the night and start playing jokes on people. We’d hear a knock on the door at 3 in the morning and go, “Oh, AD’s up.”
Wiltjer: Oh yeah, Anthony started Team No Sleep. Basically, if you fell asleep, you were going to become his victim and get woken up. I swear the dude didn’t sleep. He was just a clown.
Hood: I kept my door locked.
Twany Beckham, guard: That team never slept. I don’t know how they did it. They’d stay up all night in hotels and then play 30 minutes the next day and just kill somebody.
Malone: There was also a time where almost nightly AD would go to Goodfellas and get a slice.
Kidd-Gilchrist: Cheese pizza. That’s it. Cheese.
Wiltjer: And a lot of late-night trips to Tolly-Ho (a Lexington tradition since the 1970s). That was our spot. Neither of us had a car, so we’d walk from the lodge. We were always scrounging for money to get burgers and milkshakes, which reminds me of another AD story: After he declared for the draft and was driving this fancy Mercedes, he picks me up to go to Sonic, which was our other spot. We get there and he goes, “Yo, Kyle, you got this one? I forgot my wallet.”
Malone: A few weeks after we won the title, I hear a knock on my door and it’s Anthony in his new $150,000 Benz. He’d made a killing on his autograph tour and wanted to take me for a ride. So we get in this luxury car and roll to … Fazoli’s. Fazoli’s! It’s just so funny to think about how that part of him was still developing. From time to time those little things would come out and you go, “Wow, he’s a 7-foot-tall superstar, but he’s still a child.”
On the court, Davis rapidly became a full-grown man. In the regular-season meeting with rival Louisville, he had 18 points, 10 rebounds, six blocks, three steals. In his fourth SEC game, he had 27 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks against Arkansas. He nearly had a triple-double at South Carolina, too, and vaporized Vanderbilt at Rupp, hitting 10 of 11 shots from the field and the free-throw line. There were so many absurd stat lines, but they never satisfied Payne.
Payne: Before every game, I set a goal that he had to reach for points, rebounds, blocks, steals. They would be way out there. And he would get so close to hitting the numbers, but he’d always be two rebounds shy or a block away. When the final buzzer went off, he would sprint over and ask, “Did I get there?” Nope, you didn’t. And he would go crazy. “I ain’t ever gonna please you, KP!” We’re shaking hands with the other team and he’s yelling at me.
I used to call him Madagascar (after the animated movie) because it was like a baby giraffe that thought it was a lion, and that was him. So as he got really good and his confidence got really high, he started talking to me during games. “Dude can’t guard me, Uncle Kenny! I’m killing him! Madagascar! Madagascar! You see me fighting? I’m fighting!” It was so funny to watch him start finding that lion inside.
Rodriguez: That dude really responded to a challenge. That whole team did. Remember we had special uniforms that year? The gray ones? We wore those against Tennessee, but you might’ve heard by now that Cal does not like change. So he goes, “I don’t want to wear these, but we have to,” because it was contractual. “Bring the whites, too, but don’t tell anybody.”
Game day, the players see the grays and they’re going crazy. They love them. They’re asking if we’re keeping them for the rest of the season. I say, “I’m going to break it to you bluntly: You guys aren’t even going to have these past halftime if you stink in them. You’re going to be changing into the whites for the second half and Cal’s literally going to make me burn these, like set them on fire, if this doesn’t go well.”
AD was like, “Are you serious?” Dead serious. Socks, shoes, everything, head-to-toe change if you stink in the grays. I told him, “You better leave no doubt.” So AD goes, “I got you.” And he did. (He had 18, 8 and 7 in the 25-point victory.) And we realized they responded great to having a carrot dangled. They’d go, “Hey, Bo, you think we can get the new KDs?” Yeah, I bet if we beat Mississippi State on television tonight we’ll get some new KDs by next week. Done.
Martin: You watch these documentaries on MJ and Kobe and you learn how they’re maniacal about their craft. Cal was the best, and still is, at being able to know the little intricacies to get guys going. And with AD, it was the fact that he knew AD was a perfectionist.
He would sit under the goal and flatfooted shoot 1,000 hooks over his left shoulder, turn around and shoot 1,000 hooks over his right shoulder. Even if it took two to four hours. A lot of times you have kids that feel it’s either too boring or they’re too good to do that. He did that. He did that every single day.
Calipari: By the end, I can still remember the play, at Florida late in the season, my man shot a lefty jump hook. He caught it, he faked and he came back with a lefty. His arm looked like it was above the backboard, and it goes down. I went, “You gotta be kidding me. If that’s who he is, who’s going to stop him now?”
Payne: There was a game when LSU just tried to beat him up and he wouldn’t let them. And then when he came across the middle with that left-hand jump hook that we had worked on every single day, hundreds and hundreds of times, to see him do it instinctively, wow.
Beckham: I’ll never forget it: He looked over to the sideline and said, “I’m here. I made it.” We all went crazy on the bench. He blocks every shot, has people seeing their shadow, and now he can do that on the other end? It’s over for everybody else.
(Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
Spradlin: For all those kids, when they walk out of Wildcat Lodge and see 600 tents surrounding the practice facility for the Big Blue Madness campout in the fall, that’s always an oh-my-God moment. It hits them that this means something to people here more than any place in the world. And then for Anthony, when nobody had really seen him play yet and he showed up on the old outdoor blue court, when he emerged for the first time as this crazy long, Gumby-looking guy throwing lobs to himself off the backboard, that kind of set off AD Mania.
Kidd-Gilchrist: People went crazy when he dunked on that fan.
Hood: They’re lined up 10-deep around the outside of the blue court, just people everywhere, had it surrounded, wondering what was going to happen. Some guy steps from the crowd to play him one-on-one and he throws it off the backboard, gets around the guy, flies through the air and just crams it. About three-quarters of the fans just started screaming and the rest of them were silent because they were in shock. The first time you see someone that big and that agile move and do something like that, it’s breathtaking.
Malone: By the end of that season, we’d go to the mall in Lexington and it would look like a scene from “Thriller,” just people coming out of the woodwork, leaving stores to walk with AD. The whole mall would just kind of be following right behind him, just to see him. Almost like “Rocky,” that scene when he’s running through the streets and all the kids line up behind him, cheering him on. It was like that, but at the mall. One day he’s at least kind of a normal freshman on campus and the next thing you know, he can’t go anywhere without being swarmed.
Beckham: He was cool about it, but sometimes he got tired of it. I used to be like, “Every picture you don’t take, I’m taking, because this is going to end for me in a year or two.”
Malone: There was one guy who used to have his kid sit by the lodge nonstop and the dad would be creeping around the corner with all these things to sign. AD always tried to balance giving back to the fans and being nice with the realization that his signature was starting to gain worth and people would try to take advantage. He started to understand that his brand had value, so then he started addressing all his signatures. It would always be, “To Sam,” and then he’d sign it. That was his subtle way of saying, “You’re not just going to turn around and sell this shit.”
Kidd-Gilchrist: His best game? Whew, oh my God, really? He had so many. But we played Iowa State in the tournament and Terrence (Jones) was in foul trouble and Cal put AD on Royce White. That was the first time I saw him really shuffle his feet consistently on the perimeter, and it was very impressive.
Hood: That game comes to mind for me, too, because Royce White was talking. He felt like he had something to prove — and he was a great player — so when he scored a couple times, he started saying he was the best player on the court. What happened next was fun to watch. Anthony just went into another mode.
Calipari: We were running European stuff back then. He was catching it more at the top of the key than in the post. When he handed it off, his man couldn’t help, so Doron Lamb was getting shots, Darius Miller was getting shots, Marquis Teague. That Iowa State game, I think Marquis got 25 because they were so worried about Anthony. Our guards knew: If you came off his dribble hand-off and his man helped at all, you threw the lob to the top of the backboard. That’s all you did. He’d get it.
The one team that tried to do something different to us was Louisville in the Final Four. I can’t remember if they did it the first time we played so that we were more prepared — it was a long time ago and I just remember we won both games (he said with a cackle) — but they came out blocking the lob. They didn’t come out to guard you. They came out to try to block the lob, because if the lob happened, it was done, two points. So they tried like hell to stop it. Still didn’t work.
Wiltjer: He was dunking everything. That was one of our toughest games and Anthony just took over. And he didn’t even have to score to take over. They just could not shoot around the rim because of him. It was ridiculous.
Martin: He was unguardable. Being able to do that on a Final Four stage, that’s when you start separating guys who are elite from guys that are going to be superstars. It doesn’t matter what the scouting report is. It doesn’t matter who you put on him. He’s going to go out and get his and help his team.
Hood: Everybody has seen the clip of him during the Louisville game screaming, “This is my state!” Or maybe, “This is my shit!” I mean, that’s what it was. It was, “This is my shit!” A hundred percent. No one can convince me otherwise, unless they’re just trying to keep it PG. That was just UK being coy with the official explanation, that he said state or stage.
Wiltjer: Oh, he was for sure saying, “This is my shit!” And it was his shit. By that point, he’d really come out of his shell. He realized he was the best player in America and nobody could stop him, so he started to flex a little.
Calipari: But we almost didn’t get there. I remember in the Baylor game (Elite Eight) when he went down hard. I almost got physically sick. I was about to throw up in my mouth. I thought, “No, don’t tell me.” I walked out to him on the court and said, “Come on, man, get up. You’re fine. You’re fine.” I was just hoping that I was right, but I didn’t know.
In the national championship game against Kansas, Davis could not buy a bucket. He made just 1 of 10 shots. And it hardly mattered. He dominated the game anyway, with 16 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and three steals.
Payne: To be OK with his teammates getting more shots, to be secure in who he is as a player to not worry about who’s getting off, to be happy for the other guys and to love them like brothers, to play the game to win and only to win, that’s the spirit of a No. 1 pick, a max-contract guy, a champion.
Calipari: The best part of the story about his halftime speech is he didn’t know that I was even behind him. He says, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t make a basket, so you guys go do your thing and I’m going to play great defense, block shots and get every rebound. Let’s just win.” But that’s who he was. That was Bill Russell stuff: Don’t make a basket and dominate.
Hood: Cal has told that story a million times and it is 100 percent true. That’s not one of Cal’s fabrications.
Kidd-Gilchrist: It showed us a lot as his teammates. That was really cool. It got our attention.
Malone: In the two Final Four games, it felt like his arms had grown another foot. He was just deflecting everything. Those were the games he really just put the team on his back and carried us. He was like a Monstar. By the end of that year, it felt like he could do anything, everything.
Beckham: We’re on the balcony in New Orleans and there’s this huge crowd of fans down below. I’m recording on my phone and Anthony is next to me and the fans are screaming, “One more year! One more year!” It was like something out of a movie. It was a perfect ending.
We were kind of laughing about it, though, because let’s face it: There was zero chance he was coming back. He’d done everything a person could do in college, and he did it all in one year.
Brett Dawson contributed to the reporting for this story.
In the heated debate about greatest freshman seasons in NCAA basketball history, you could make a case for Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Durant or Zion Williamson, but this much is certain: There has never been one quite like the alien invasion of Anthony Davis at Kentucky. From his arrival in the summer of 2011 until his departure in the spring of 2012, AD was a one-eyebrowed wonder.
He led the nation in PER, win shares, box plus/minus, offensive rating and defensive rating. He averaged 14.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.7 blocks and 1.4 steals, set an unbreakable NCAA freshman record for rejections (186) and led the Wildcats to a national championship. He won national freshman of the year, defensive player of the year, player of the year and Final Four MOP, all while taking the fourth-most shots on the team, as John Calipari loves to point out.
After that lone season in college, Davis became the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, won an Olympic gold medal, earned eight All-Star appearances (so far) and claimed his first NBA championship alongside LeBron James last season with the Lakers. As he prepares to defend that title, already one of the most decorated basketball players of all time, this is The Brow’s origin story.
The legend actually begins in the summer of 2010, shortly after his famous growth spurt from a 6-foot-3 guard to a 6-foot-10 forward in barely a year, when a grassroots tournament in Merrillville, Indiana, changed Davis’ life. He had almost committed to the only Division I program that had offered him a scholarship, Cleveland State, a few months earlier.
Kenny Payne, UK assistant coach: Everyone in Chicago was telling me he’s going to be the best player in the country. I told Cal, “We gotta go see this kid. He’s supposed to be the next big thing and we need to lay eyes on him.” So the whole time we’re there watching him, Cal is hollering, “Wow! He’s Marcus Camby! He’s Marcus Camby!”
Calipari: I knew without even asking that, like Marcus Camby, he must’ve been about 6-3 and grew real big, real fast, because he had those guard skills. He was skinny. Real skinny. But you saw how he moved and the way he blocked shots. And the last time I had a Marcus Camby, we barely lost a game. We had to have him.
In ESPN’s “30 for 30” documentary on Calipari, Davis says the Hall of Fame coach pulled up in his rough Chicago neighborhood for an in-home recruiting visit driving a Hummer.
Calipari: I think they exaggerated that some. We might’ve had a driver, but it wasn’t like we came in a stretch limo. Well, I don’t think we did. Maybe we did. I think they were just surprised that I wasn’t afraid to come into that neighborhood. That doesn’t ever affect me. I’m comfortable in those settings and want the families to know I’m comfortable in those settings.
Payne: We came in a rental car, nothing special. But the neighborhood, I don’t want to say it was dangerous, but it was suspicious. They had a big fence so that nobody could look in. Anthony had a basketball goal in the middle of the back yard and the fence was so tall you could barely see it.
Calipari: Everything that has happened for me and my family is based on the fact that African American mothers and fathers and grandmothers and aunts and uncles have trusted me with their children, so in those settings I want them to know I’m not going to embellish, I’m not going to lie, I’m not going to promise anything, but I’m going to take care of that child and help him chase his dreams.
Payne: Cal went inside to talk with the family and the kid pulled me outside to watch him shoot. That’s the first time I got the chance to tell him, “Look, you’re a $100 million player, and it’ll be my job to push you every single day to make sure you become that guy. We will never see the best of you, won’t even come close, but we’ll give you the foundation to be a $100 million player.”
Calipari: He didn’t want anything handed to him. He didn’t care about hearing that he was going to start or play so many minutes or get so many shots. “Coach, it doesn’t matter. I just want to win.”
Payne: While we’re talking, he’s shooting and I’m watching. He shot the ball from his left ear all the way across his face into a follow-through on the right side. I’m like, “Anthony, you’ve got to shoot the ball through your right eye.” That’s all I said. He shoots another 15 balls and he’s asking me, “Like this? Like this?” Yep, that’s it. So maybe three weeks later, he comes to campus for an unofficial visit and he runs into the office and grabs me. “KP, you gotta see this! I got a surprise for you!”
He takes me down to the court and starts shooting, and his shot is cured. I mean, he’d totally fixed it. In all my years working with kids, I’ve never seen a player correct something so quickly.
Davis in 2019: Cal said some of the realest things I’ve ever heard from a coach and Kenny told my mom and dad he’d take care of me. He kept his word to my parents. He watched over me and made sure I was good.
Darius Miller, forward: Ant was dominating from the first time he got on campus. It was pretty crazy.
Kyle Wiltjer, forward: We did some physical testing and they put the vertical test by the backboard. They couldn’t get the stick high enough for Anthony, so when he jumped, he just went up and tapped the top of the backboard. It was totally ridiculous.
Jon Hood, guard: He’s an alien.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, forward: There was just an aura around AD. We’ve never seen a person like him, who can handle it the way he does at that size, defend the way he defends, make shots the way he does. We got a taste of it that summer, because that was the lockout year in the NBA and Cal invited all those pros to the Craft Center to work out. We got a chance to see what we could do against them in pickup games.
Miller: AD handled himself really well. He competed, really went at them, loved every minute of it. Knowing the expectations we had for that season, it was great to see.
Hood: LeBron came. Rondo came. The Big Three from the Thunder came: Durant, Westbrook, Harden. Watching AD play against guys like that was special. He was just dunking everything. And obviously nobody could guard Durant, but Anthony was the first one to try. He didn’t say, ‘I got KD,’ but he walked out and stood right next to him like, ‘I got you.’ And AD made Durant work. He still scored, because he’s one of the greatest scorers of all time, but it took three, four, five moves to score on AD — who was 18 at the time. It was just two aliens looking at each other going, “What planet is this guy from?”
Bo Rodriguez, equipment manager: One day, I hear a rumble. Then a banging on the equipment room door. Then a dull roar. I’m like, “What the hell is going on?” I peek out and it’s like that zombie show: arms and legs sticking through the door. What in the world? I push my way out and it’s wall-to-wall people in the practice gym, in the hallway, everywhere. I call the police and fire department to get everybody out of there because it’s not safe and I know our guys and all the NBA guys are in the building.
After everyone is cleared out and it’s calmed down, Cal comes in and says, “Let me see your phones. Open ‘em up. I need to check ‘em. Who tweeted it?” We were all freaking out until one of the managers goes, “No, look, LeBron tweeted that he was here.” I looked at the timestamp and within five minutes of that tweet was when I was calling the police. In that short amount of time, it had turned into a circus.
JUST GOT DONE HOOPING AT UK WITH THE TEAM, AND ALUM RONDO,@EBLED24 @BOOGIECOUSINS! GREAT RUN! #BIGBLUENATION
— LEBRON JAMES (@KINGJAMES) SEPTEMBER 14, 2011
Payne: What we were hearing about their pickup games with our guys, you could tell there was something special brewing. They were trash-talking those pros. You kidding me? You rarely see college guys going right back at NBA guys like that.
Durant in 2012: Everybody on our team said they’re the best team in the country. They’re really, really good, man.
Rodriguez: All I knew about AD at the time was the story about his growth spurt. He was so thin, so quiet, didn’t smile a lot. Not to embarrass him, but he needed some dental work done and so he was really shy when he got there. You wondered how that was going to play out in the alpha world. But then all the NBA guys showed up to our gym and you started to see the lion come out.
You don’t know what he really is until you see guys like LeBron and Durant and Westbrook grab the ball and stop the game and go, “Wow, Anthony, how did you do that?” Those guys have seen everything under the sun in basketball, but when you get in the air and you go Gumby, where your heels and your hands are basically touching, arched the wrong way, backward, catching impossible lobs, even the other great players recognize that you’re a freak of nature.
Miller: There were definitely AD Rules in practice. There were a bunch of drills that just didn’t really go as planned when Anthony was out there, so you had to alter them. There was a two-on-one transition drill he just wrecked.
Will Martin, student manager who became Davis’ personal trainer (now Missouri Western head coach): The beginning of the drill was almost a formality. You had the two offensive players and one guy would throw it over the top of the defender’s head and then it would be a two-on-one drill from there. So one day, one of the first few weeks of practice, AD is the defender and I think MKG throws it over. AD just jumped up and grabbed it. No one’s ever done that because one, no one is capable of that, and two, your mind registers that, “OK, as soon as the ball is thrown, I’m getting back on defense.” Well, AD jumped up and just grabbed it.
Cal stopped practice. “We’re gonna have to change the rules. We’re going to have to call it the AD Rule or something.”
Calipari: There were a lot of things Anthony changed. Some drills he ruined completely, so instead of changing the drill, you just took him out. “Come over here for a second and stand with me.” You just knew he was a generational type of player. I may not ever coach another one like him.
Payne: We still had plenty of work to do, though. He was so skinny and he didn’t have any post offense at all when we started. I told him exactly what was going to happen. “You’re so light that if we throw you the ball in the post and you get bumped, you’re going to throw up a BS shot and fall down and Cal’s going to stop practice and tell your teammates, ‘Don’t ever throw him the ball in there again.’ ”He’s looking at me like, “Come on, man, he ain’t gonna do that.” First day of practice, what do you think happened? Exactly, to a T, what I said. From that day on, Anthony said, “OK, I get it. I have to work on my craft.”
Davis: I was very, very raw. I was like a baby giraffe that just came out of the womb — the way they walk, wobbling around on their skinny legs. I remember I wanted to work out by myself with the strength coach because I wasn’t as strong as the other guys and I didn’t want to embarrass myself. KP still has me saved in his phone as Baby Giraffe.
Rodriguez: He knew he was really tall and long but also really thin, so we were going to have to get him a 3X and it was going to fit him like a blanket. The only request he ever had was not to have his arms out. He wanted a T-shirt or some kind of sleeves under the jersey. He was self-conscious about how skinny his arms were back then.
Preston Spradlin, graduate assistant (now Morehead State head coach): The rate at which he put on weight and got stronger and got better was incredible. I can remember John Robic routinely hitting us with a, “Holy shit, this guy’s good!” We were all just kind of in awe. He was just constantly transforming before our eyes.
It’s not like Davis eased onto the scene at Kentucky either. He had 23 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and three assists in his first college game, albeit against Marist. He validated the hype with 14 points, seven blocks, six boards and two steals in a win over Kansas at Madison Square Garden in his second game.
But everyone agrees on the moment that truly signaled his arrival: a game-saving swat of 6-foot-9 North Carolina star John Henson’s jumper on Dec. 3, 2011, a play on which Davis helped off his man and covered the width of the lane in a blink to erase a seemingly unblockable shot.
Spradlin: That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard Rupp Arena. It was just deafening. That play right there is just the epitome of who he is: He can affect the game without scoring, and on the biggest stage, in the biggest of moments, he can make any type of play you need to win the game. I don’t even know how many other players could have blocked that shot. Are there any?
Miller: That was probably a moment that changed how all of us thought about not only him but the rest of our season. We believed we were good before that game, but it solidified in our minds: We can beat anybody, and we’ve got a guy that nobody else does.
Martin: Everything that makes this kid different from an intangible standpoint, now he’s putting it together tangibly. Now he’s on the stage and he’s exuding those gifts. We’re seeing the AD Rules in action in front of 24,000 people, against North Carolina.
Wiltjer: That was his official coming-out party.
Hood: Everyone knows about the block, but not many people realize the drama that happened afterward. The lockout was still going and so John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins were there, sitting across from our bench, about two rows up. We win the game and everybody goes crazy and we’re celebrating in our locker room when DeMarcus comes in and looks at AD and just starts giggling. Then he takes off running to the training room.
He comes back with athletic tape wrapped around two fingers, sticky side out, and comes right at Anthony. He says, “Hold still a minute,” and grabs him by the head and tries to wax the unibrow. AD is shielding his face and screaming, ‘No, no, no, no!’ I don’t think he was ever really going to take the brow, but he was just letting Anthony know he was in the club, he was one of those guys at Kentucky. He had Boogie’s respect, which not a lot of people have. It was kind of a coronation.
Kidd-Gilchrist: Ant’s eyebrow was just legendary, and eventually he understood that. But at first he really didn’t think nothing of it. That was just him. I’d be like, “Why not just cut it off?” and he’d say, “Can’t do that. It’s me.”
Sam Malone, guard: He definitely became aware that people had “The Brow” signs and T-shirts and were gluing unibrows on their faces. He wanted to make it part of his brand. He could’ve easily just taken a razor and shaved between his eyebrows, but he knew it made him stand out.
There was one practice where he was missing one of his front teeth because it either fell out or got knocked out or he had to get it replaced, and I remember looking over at him and just laughing to myself at the idea that one of the best basketball players on the planet is out here missing a tooth and he’s got a unibrow. What a sight. I hope he doesn’t get mad at me for saying that.
Martin: Nobody ever made fun of AD. I don’t think it was because people feared him, but there was just an immense amount of respect for him.
Kidd-Gilchrist: He stayed humble. Ant is a unique basketball player, but he’s also a very, very special person.
Rodriguez: He had a good mom and dad, because they clearly raised him not to be entitled in any way. He treated everyone, whether it was a teammate or a coach or a manager or the fans, with the utmost respect. He was so unbelievably easy to deal with. Just an awesome kid.
Hood: That’s how I remember him, as a big kid.
Malone: He would stay up all hours. He called it “Vampire Time” or the “Vampire Hours.” He’d wake up in the middle of the night and start playing jokes on people. We’d hear a knock on the door at 3 in the morning and go, “Oh, AD’s up.”
Wiltjer: Oh yeah, Anthony started Team No Sleep. Basically, if you fell asleep, you were going to become his victim and get woken up. I swear the dude didn’t sleep. He was just a clown.
Hood: I kept my door locked.
Twany Beckham, guard: That team never slept. I don’t know how they did it. They’d stay up all night in hotels and then play 30 minutes the next day and just kill somebody.
Malone: There was also a time where almost nightly AD would go to Goodfellas and get a slice.
Kidd-Gilchrist: Cheese pizza. That’s it. Cheese.
Wiltjer: And a lot of late-night trips to Tolly-Ho (a Lexington tradition since the 1970s). That was our spot. Neither of us had a car, so we’d walk from the lodge. We were always scrounging for money to get burgers and milkshakes, which reminds me of another AD story: After he declared for the draft and was driving this fancy Mercedes, he picks me up to go to Sonic, which was our other spot. We get there and he goes, “Yo, Kyle, you got this one? I forgot my wallet.”
Malone: A few weeks after we won the title, I hear a knock on my door and it’s Anthony in his new $150,000 Benz. He’d made a killing on his autograph tour and wanted to take me for a ride. So we get in this luxury car and roll to … Fazoli’s. Fazoli’s! It’s just so funny to think about how that part of him was still developing. From time to time those little things would come out and you go, “Wow, he’s a 7-foot-tall superstar, but he’s still a child.”
On the court, Davis rapidly became a full-grown man. In the regular-season meeting with rival Louisville, he had 18 points, 10 rebounds, six blocks, three steals. In his fourth SEC game, he had 27 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks against Arkansas. He nearly had a triple-double at South Carolina, too, and vaporized Vanderbilt at Rupp, hitting 10 of 11 shots from the field and the free-throw line. There were so many absurd stat lines, but they never satisfied Payne.
Payne: Before every game, I set a goal that he had to reach for points, rebounds, blocks, steals. They would be way out there. And he would get so close to hitting the numbers, but he’d always be two rebounds shy or a block away. When the final buzzer went off, he would sprint over and ask, “Did I get there?” Nope, you didn’t. And he would go crazy. “I ain’t ever gonna please you, KP!” We’re shaking hands with the other team and he’s yelling at me.
I used to call him Madagascar (after the animated movie) because it was like a baby giraffe that thought it was a lion, and that was him. So as he got really good and his confidence got really high, he started talking to me during games. “Dude can’t guard me, Uncle Kenny! I’m killing him! Madagascar! Madagascar! You see me fighting? I’m fighting!” It was so funny to watch him start finding that lion inside.
Rodriguez: That dude really responded to a challenge. That whole team did. Remember we had special uniforms that year? The gray ones? We wore those against Tennessee, but you might’ve heard by now that Cal does not like change. So he goes, “I don’t want to wear these, but we have to,” because it was contractual. “Bring the whites, too, but don’t tell anybody.”
Game day, the players see the grays and they’re going crazy. They love them. They’re asking if we’re keeping them for the rest of the season. I say, “I’m going to break it to you bluntly: You guys aren’t even going to have these past halftime if you stink in them. You’re going to be changing into the whites for the second half and Cal’s literally going to make me burn these, like set them on fire, if this doesn’t go well.”
AD was like, “Are you serious?” Dead serious. Socks, shoes, everything, head-to-toe change if you stink in the grays. I told him, “You better leave no doubt.” So AD goes, “I got you.” And he did. (He had 18, 8 and 7 in the 25-point victory.) And we realized they responded great to having a carrot dangled. They’d go, “Hey, Bo, you think we can get the new KDs?” Yeah, I bet if we beat Mississippi State on television tonight we’ll get some new KDs by next week. Done.
Martin: You watch these documentaries on MJ and Kobe and you learn how they’re maniacal about their craft. Cal was the best, and still is, at being able to know the little intricacies to get guys going. And with AD, it was the fact that he knew AD was a perfectionist.
He would sit under the goal and flatfooted shoot 1,000 hooks over his left shoulder, turn around and shoot 1,000 hooks over his right shoulder. Even if it took two to four hours. A lot of times you have kids that feel it’s either too boring or they’re too good to do that. He did that. He did that every single day.
Calipari: By the end, I can still remember the play, at Florida late in the season, my man shot a lefty jump hook. He caught it, he faked and he came back with a lefty. His arm looked like it was above the backboard, and it goes down. I went, “You gotta be kidding me. If that’s who he is, who’s going to stop him now?”
Payne: There was a game when LSU just tried to beat him up and he wouldn’t let them. And then when he came across the middle with that left-hand jump hook that we had worked on every single day, hundreds and hundreds of times, to see him do it instinctively, wow.
Beckham: I’ll never forget it: He looked over to the sideline and said, “I’m here. I made it.” We all went crazy on the bench. He blocks every shot, has people seeing their shadow, and now he can do that on the other end? It’s over for everybody else.
(Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
Spradlin: For all those kids, when they walk out of Wildcat Lodge and see 600 tents surrounding the practice facility for the Big Blue Madness campout in the fall, that’s always an oh-my-God moment. It hits them that this means something to people here more than any place in the world. And then for Anthony, when nobody had really seen him play yet and he showed up on the old outdoor blue court, when he emerged for the first time as this crazy long, Gumby-looking guy throwing lobs to himself off the backboard, that kind of set off AD Mania.
Kidd-Gilchrist: People went crazy when he dunked on that fan.
Hood: They’re lined up 10-deep around the outside of the blue court, just people everywhere, had it surrounded, wondering what was going to happen. Some guy steps from the crowd to play him one-on-one and he throws it off the backboard, gets around the guy, flies through the air and just crams it. About three-quarters of the fans just started screaming and the rest of them were silent because they were in shock. The first time you see someone that big and that agile move and do something like that, it’s breathtaking.
Malone: By the end of that season, we’d go to the mall in Lexington and it would look like a scene from “Thriller,” just people coming out of the woodwork, leaving stores to walk with AD. The whole mall would just kind of be following right behind him, just to see him. Almost like “Rocky,” that scene when he’s running through the streets and all the kids line up behind him, cheering him on. It was like that, but at the mall. One day he’s at least kind of a normal freshman on campus and the next thing you know, he can’t go anywhere without being swarmed.
Beckham: He was cool about it, but sometimes he got tired of it. I used to be like, “Every picture you don’t take, I’m taking, because this is going to end for me in a year or two.”
Malone: There was one guy who used to have his kid sit by the lodge nonstop and the dad would be creeping around the corner with all these things to sign. AD always tried to balance giving back to the fans and being nice with the realization that his signature was starting to gain worth and people would try to take advantage. He started to understand that his brand had value, so then he started addressing all his signatures. It would always be, “To Sam,” and then he’d sign it. That was his subtle way of saying, “You’re not just going to turn around and sell this shit.”
Kidd-Gilchrist: His best game? Whew, oh my God, really? He had so many. But we played Iowa State in the tournament and Terrence (Jones) was in foul trouble and Cal put AD on Royce White. That was the first time I saw him really shuffle his feet consistently on the perimeter, and it was very impressive.
Hood: That game comes to mind for me, too, because Royce White was talking. He felt like he had something to prove — and he was a great player — so when he scored a couple times, he started saying he was the best player on the court. What happened next was fun to watch. Anthony just went into another mode.
Calipari: We were running European stuff back then. He was catching it more at the top of the key than in the post. When he handed it off, his man couldn’t help, so Doron Lamb was getting shots, Darius Miller was getting shots, Marquis Teague. That Iowa State game, I think Marquis got 25 because they were so worried about Anthony. Our guards knew: If you came off his dribble hand-off and his man helped at all, you threw the lob to the top of the backboard. That’s all you did. He’d get it.
The one team that tried to do something different to us was Louisville in the Final Four. I can’t remember if they did it the first time we played so that we were more prepared — it was a long time ago and I just remember we won both games (he said with a cackle) — but they came out blocking the lob. They didn’t come out to guard you. They came out to try to block the lob, because if the lob happened, it was done, two points. So they tried like hell to stop it. Still didn’t work.
Wiltjer: He was dunking everything. That was one of our toughest games and Anthony just took over. And he didn’t even have to score to take over. They just could not shoot around the rim because of him. It was ridiculous.
Martin: He was unguardable. Being able to do that on a Final Four stage, that’s when you start separating guys who are elite from guys that are going to be superstars. It doesn’t matter what the scouting report is. It doesn’t matter who you put on him. He’s going to go out and get his and help his team.
Hood: Everybody has seen the clip of him during the Louisville game screaming, “This is my state!” Or maybe, “This is my shit!” I mean, that’s what it was. It was, “This is my shit!” A hundred percent. No one can convince me otherwise, unless they’re just trying to keep it PG. That was just UK being coy with the official explanation, that he said state or stage.
Wiltjer: Oh, he was for sure saying, “This is my shit!” And it was his shit. By that point, he’d really come out of his shell. He realized he was the best player in America and nobody could stop him, so he started to flex a little.
Calipari: But we almost didn’t get there. I remember in the Baylor game (Elite Eight) when he went down hard. I almost got physically sick. I was about to throw up in my mouth. I thought, “No, don’t tell me.” I walked out to him on the court and said, “Come on, man, get up. You’re fine. You’re fine.” I was just hoping that I was right, but I didn’t know.
In the national championship game against Kansas, Davis could not buy a bucket. He made just 1 of 10 shots. And it hardly mattered. He dominated the game anyway, with 16 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and three steals.
Payne: To be OK with his teammates getting more shots, to be secure in who he is as a player to not worry about who’s getting off, to be happy for the other guys and to love them like brothers, to play the game to win and only to win, that’s the spirit of a No. 1 pick, a max-contract guy, a champion.
Calipari: The best part of the story about his halftime speech is he didn’t know that I was even behind him. He says, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t make a basket, so you guys go do your thing and I’m going to play great defense, block shots and get every rebound. Let’s just win.” But that’s who he was. That was Bill Russell stuff: Don’t make a basket and dominate.
Hood: Cal has told that story a million times and it is 100 percent true. That’s not one of Cal’s fabrications.
Kidd-Gilchrist: It showed us a lot as his teammates. That was really cool. It got our attention.
Malone: In the two Final Four games, it felt like his arms had grown another foot. He was just deflecting everything. Those were the games he really just put the team on his back and carried us. He was like a Monstar. By the end of that year, it felt like he could do anything, everything.
Beckham: We’re on the balcony in New Orleans and there’s this huge crowd of fans down below. I’m recording on my phone and Anthony is next to me and the fans are screaming, “One more year! One more year!” It was like something out of a movie. It was a perfect ending.
We were kind of laughing about it, though, because let’s face it: There was zero chance he was coming back. He’d done everything a person could do in college, and he did it all in one year.
Brett Dawson contributed to the reporting for this story.
