Dude LeBron spend 1m a year for personal training. Dude is getting older and had 4 injuries in the last 3 years.
Almost Davis is known to be prone injured.
That's great. Does not negate the fact that Basketball is only a small portion of his portfolio. At this point in his career making the amount of money he will off that movie is where his mindset is at. Oh, and equalling Jordan or surpassing him.
Any Lakers fan can see in game 5 and 6 his effort was not there even for a player his age. In game 6 he gave up with 3 minutes left. He played the same way in game 5.
Space Jam 2 is big for him. This season was only played because of the television contract. Lakers revenue's are way down for ticket sales(zero) and merchandise. Advertising dollars for them are probably down too since there are no fans and companies are probably hesitant. No revenue from concessions either. As a whole the only thing left is winning a Championship. On paper it's great but it's not going to fix anything financially. He knows this and so does the team. Having such a short off season is another reason why shutting it down early was smart. Now, I'm not saying that behind the doors him and management made a plan to tank the season but this way he gets to go on a publicity tour for his movie that comes out in little over 1 month. He gets to fly to China and promote it in person. Had this season played out like ever other he would have been almost done in the Finals and would have had his time to promote. Covid put a wrench in that and this is the only way he can do it.
Davis still has a long career a head of him and him and Lebron are close friends. Davis has his money and a ring. No benefit for him to keep playing. Next season you are going to see the Lakers destroy everyone and blame this season on everything they can.
This is not about the love of the Lakers or basketball, Its about business.