For more than five seasons in Los Angeles, LeBron James and Anthony Davis were a constant presence together. They spent months inside the NBA Bubble during the Lakers’ 2020 championship run and shared All-Star weekends, media days, practices, team flights, and interviews along the way. Lionel Hollins, who served as an assistant coach under Frank Vogel from 2019 to 2021, witnessed that partnership firsthand and had a front-row seat to James’ and Davis’ day-to-day routines.

Against that backdrop, Hollins recently appeared on SiriusXM NBA Radio and recalled why the Lakers’ two biggest stars seldom trained together. “LeBron told him, ‘You’ve got to get up a little earlier to come work out with me,'” Hollins claimed in his interview.

In response, Davis shared a cap emoji on social media, a slang expression commonly used to call something false or misleading, making it clear he did not agree with the claim. Meanwhile, X user @fearedlaker commented: “Shouldn’t you be getting better, not on Twitter calling random tweets facts or cap?”

AD didn’t waste time. He responded: “Ah, that’s right you can because you don’t work and have nothing to do with your life.” 

While Davis offered no further explanation, his response made it clear that he disputed Hollins’ version of events. Even so, the former Lakers assistant coach maintained that Davis’ work ethic was never the issue. Instead, he pointed to the difference in the two superstars’ daily routines.

By that point, LeBron James had already wrapped up his morning routine. Hollins stressed that Davis’ commitment was never the issue. Instead, he pointed to the contrast in their daily schedules.

“I got a story to tell you. We got AD in a trade after I joined the team. AD comes into the weight room in the morning and says, ‘Bron, you said we’d work out together. Man, we haven’t worked out yet’. He said, ‘You gotta get up earlier to come and work out with me.’ It was a true statement because Bron is a morning person,” the former Lakers assistant coach shared. “He gets up, does what he needs to do. AD is a little later, but he gets there and does his work. But it couldn’t be with LeBron because LeBron was already finished.”

Worth noting, this isn’t a new pattern for James. Over the years, he’s built his workout routines around partners like Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Love, and Carmelo Anthony rather than every teammate he’s shared a locker room with. Davis, similarly, has long worked with his own training staff. In that light, mismatched gym schedules between James and Davis wouldn’t be unusual for two stars with entirely different training regimens; it doesn’t, on its own, point to any rift.

However, that routine never affected what happened on the floor. After Davis arrived from the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019, he and James quickly became one of the NBA’s top duos. They captured the 2020 championship inside the Orlando bubble, reached the playoffs 4 times, advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2023, where they were swept, over more than 5 seasons together. Their chemistry was evident throughout that run, with James assisting Davis 727 times in the regular season, the second-most assists he has recorded to any teammate during his career.

Davis starred throughout the title run, while James claimed the NBA Finals MVP after the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in 6 games. Their on-court chemistry shows up in the numbers, too; according to Sports Reference, Davis ranks second all-time for assists received from James with 727, trailing only Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Injuries, more than anything, likely explain why one ring wasn’t more. Davis missed roughly 35 percent of the games the two shared as teammates, a workload gap that chipped away at the Lakers’ ceiling even as both players remained among the league’s best when healthy.

Sadly, the iconic LeBron James-Anthony Davis partnership came to an end in 2025 when the Lakers traded Davis to the Dallas Mavericks in the blockbuster deal for Luka Doncic. James avoided any parting shots once the trade went through, instead crediting Davis for what they’d built together and for the 2020 title, a gesture Davis returned with praise of his own, leaving no public sign of bitterness on either side.

Despite all the claims over the years, James and Davis’ friendship is an interesting sight to behold. During the offseason, many rumors suggested that the Golden State Warriors were planning to reunite the two friends. Well, that didn’t happen.

As for Hollins’ story itself, it remains a single, uncorroborated anecdote. And what did happen was Anthony Davis standing up against the supposed false claims by Lionel Hollins.