From the very beginning of his NBA career, Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis was renowned as an easy player to market.
He is one of the biggest individual stars ever to play for one of America's most successful college programs. He has not one, but two, snappy nicknames. The result: a long list of commercials and multimedia projects that have persevered through three different teams and varying levels of on-court success, health and public adulation.
Davis is once again on the promotional circuit, and spoke with Sports Illustrated Wednesday on behalf of top moisturizer brand CeraVe. In that interview, he reflected on what a career filled with promotional opportunities has taught him—and in a meta twist, what he would tell his younger self about the business side of basketball.
"I remember one commercial, I had to put this wig on. I don't even remember what it was about," Davis said. "I had long hair at the time, I had like long blond hair, and now I would never do that, you know what I'm saying? But I had to go through that—'Oh, this is weird,' you know?"
The commercial Davis is talking about appears to be this one—a Boost Mobile spot so obscure it seems to have been taken off YouTube (at least one Louisiana radio station attests to its existence). In it, he plays an actor in a Shakespeare-style period piece and, indeed, wears a hilarious blond wig.
The ad may have been out of Davis's comfort zone, he emphasized, but he took something valuable away from it.
"Maybe I would tell my younger self that it's not all about the money, all money isn't good money, and hold true to your values, now that I know that," Davis said. "When I was younger, I had no idea. But I had to go through all those things to understand the business, understand what I want, understand that I am the brand."
Still, there is one aspect of his early NBA years he would change.
"I would keep all that the same," Davis said. "But I probably would tell my younger self to take that wig off."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Anthony Davis Shares the Business Advice He Would Give His Younger Self.
