If Miami Heat forward LeBron James has had the best year a basketball player can have, New Orleans Hornets forward Anthony Davis has probably had the most surreal. One went from Finals goat to MVP, Finals MVP, NBA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist. Pretty great year overall. Davis went from high school graduate to National Player of the Year, National Champion, consensus best player and number one pick in the 2012 NBA Draft and Olympic Gold Medalist. Also not bad. One ended up being the most important part of Team USA, the other the least important. Still, they were teammates and for Davis, that experience was invaluable. Monty Williams, Davis' Hornets Head Coach, told the New Orleans Times Picayune's John Reid that the last six weeks of Davis' life has been the best learning experience the Hornets' franchise player could've asked for.
Any time you get a chance to play around all that talent, I don't care who you are, it's going to have a positive impact on you,'' Williams said
Clearly Williams is a big believer in a couple of science subjects. The first is osmosis. Dictionary.com defines osmosis as "a subtle or gradual absorption or mingling." Wouldn't it be great if Kevin Love's rebounding and outlet passing, Kobe Bryant's footwork and just about everything in LeBron James' game rubbed off on Davis? Developing those skills would be great, though expecting him to become anywhere close to an expert in every other Team USA teammate's best attribute is probably a little unrealistic.
The more likely scenario, and possibly more important, is that Davis picked up how to be an even better teammate then he already is. Davis likely looked at the leadership skills of Chris Paul, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler and others and figured out what kind of leader he can be for a suddenly very young Hornets team that he is going to be a key part of. It's also going to help when he's one of the three or four best players on the 2014 World Championship team and 2016 Olympic Team that maybe, just maybe, Monty Williams will also be a part of.
