If there was any question about what a trip to the All-Star Game would do to Anthony Davis this season, at least his first two games including one 59-point performance following his trip to Toronto may have fans clamoring to send him back every year.
So how did he avoid getting distracted? “Everybody had a little time (off) but it’s time to get back to work and the way you do that is realizing that the second half of the season is where guys make the push to make the playoffs or get a bump in the standings,” he said on Sunday morning, before putting up some historic numbers in his second game back. “… the first game is always tough coming back from All-Star, we played last night and we played great so it’s easier for us now that we’ve got the first game under our belt so now it’s just moving forward, getting better every day.”
Like many Americans, Davis has another huge deadline looming: Taxes. He spoke to For The Win on behalf of his new campaign with H&R Block and its new contest for a trip to the NBA Finals.
I was just told that this ad buy is going to be everywhere. I know you’re on TV a lot, but When you have endorsements like that, do you get calls or texts from people telling you how sick they are of seeing you everywhere or about the endorsements or saying things like ‘thanks for reminding me to do my taxes?’
AD: Yeah a lot of people call me on previous stuff that I’ve been in and will (ask) ‘where can I do this’ or stuff like that. So I’m pretty sure a lot of people, especially around tax season, are going to be calling me or texting me ‘oh can you get H&R Block to do my taxes’ so I’m pretty sure … my phone’s going to be ringing off the hook for people to get their taxes done.
NBA players have ridiculously complicated taxes though right?
AD: Yeah, our taxes our very complicated.
I know you have people that handle this for you, but how many W2s and tax forms do you have in any given year?
AD: Well we get taxes every state that we play in, you know, so just a ton. It’s definitely a headache.
Does it make you pay attention to tax laws at all?
AD: Yeah we had a discussion actually … (there’s a new) law where we get (some of) our money back from playing in Tennessee. It was a big deal that went down but that’s a good thing about it. We look at little things like that and try to make everything easier for us. We definitely look down to see where we’re getting taxed, how much we’re getting taxed, and everything like that. How often we’re getting taxed … we definitely sit down and look at little details that normal people wouldn’t have to pay attention to.
I know you’ve been in the league for a few years now but was that surprising to you when you got there?
AD: Yeah I had no idea that we were going to pay the kind of taxes that we pay. It was always my parents paid taxes and that was in it but when I got in the league they said ‘well you’re paying it.’
What did you do for fun at the All-Star Game or was it just work work work all the time?
AD: It was a lot of media coverage and stuff that I had to do but when I didn’t (have to work), I tried to stay inside. It was very cold. So I didn’t really get a chance to do very much that I wanted to because it was like negative four outside.
Aren’t you from Chicago or someplace that’s really cold?
AD: Yeah I’m from Chicago but Chicago doesn’t get to negative four and I’ve been in New Orleans for four years so I’m kind of used to the (weather) down here.
