The Los Angeles Lakers came to the NBA 2024-25 season with high expectations under coach JJ Redick. They have done well, one must say. One crucial player who came to their success was Anthony Davis. He averages 31.2 points and 10.4 rebounds in a stunning opening few weeks for the Lakers. However, he is unfortunate to get an eye injury after getting poked in the eye by Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl. He blocked the ball from Poeltl, who looked to dunk the ball but received a thunderous block from Davis.

It looked swollen, but AD returned from injury to play basketball. With most people calling him to wear protective goggles, Davis doesn’t want fog in his goggles, one might say. Even a reporter inquired about his eye condition and whether he would wear goggles to protect his eyes.

According to Lakers Nation, Anthony Davis mentioned, “I wore goggles for 3 years when I was younger so, um I don’t want to.” The player wore glasses when he played with the blue-chip high school and the Lakers. Davis wore those goggles during the Los Angeles Lakers championship run at the Florida pandemic bubble in 2020. So, wearing goggles could work out well.

He downplayed major injury concerns but also understood the risk of it. “To be honest, I mean obviously, I didn’t have to get to a point where you know doctor orders to.”

Significantly, AD had a “couple of scratches in his eye” and the medical team mentioned he would be cleared to play. It’s not the first time players sported glasses to protect their eyes. It brings us back to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Amar’e Stoudemire. Ever wondered why Amar’e Stoudemire wore glasses? He had a peculiar reason as well.

Anthony Davis can take a page from Amar’e Stoudemire’s playbook

Davis continued, “You know, I think, uh, Amar’e actually had to wear them at risk of and I could be wrong at risk of being blind hit something like that. That’s not the case for me. If it gets to that point where my eye doctor tells me that I need to wear them, then of course I will, but uh, I’ve been clear to go out and play.” 

One name that dominated the 2000s era was Amar’e Stoudemire. With Steve Nash, Stoudemire played the pick-and-roll to perfection by donning goggles. Why? Because he got poked in the eye!

During a training session, the Phoenix Suns icon got a finger poke from his teammate Boris Diaw. He wore goggles then but later removed them. With rotten luck, he injured his eye again as he detached his retina. With things getting dangerous, he wore goggles throughout his career amidst the doctor’s advice.

During one game against the Clippers, Stoudemire went for a block on Al Thorton. Unfortunately, Thorton poked him in the right eye after he chose not to wear goggles. He had torn his iris, the same eye he got injured earlier. His entire world was flipped upside down when he found himself lying on the operating table for a grueling 22 hours a day. The player endured this for ten days and successfully attached his retina to his eye.

Hopefully, Davis would have no issues if he wore goggles and we could avoid a Stoudemire situation.