How Lakers superstar Anthony Davis makes and spends his millions

Long before he landed in the league, Davis was expected to be a generational NBA talent. And even though he's struggled with injuries on and off throughout his career, he's lived up to that promise ever since the New Orleans Hornets — now the New Orleans Pelicans — selected him with the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.

Davis has racked up eight All-Star nods and four first-team All-NBA selections through his 11 seasons in the NBA. And while he's averaged at least 20 points per game on the offensive end every year after his rookie season, he's also been stellar on the defensive side of the ball; he's been named to an NBA All-Defensive Team four times and has led the league in blocks in three separate seasons.

The Chicago native made waves when, after seven seasons as the supposed savior of New Orleans' wayward NBA franchise, he demanded a trade that sent him across the country to join ranks with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2020, his very first season wearing purple and yellow, Davis helped his new team secure a record-tying 17th NBA title to earn his first ring in the pros.

Davis' success on the hardwood has translated to incredible financial success off of it from the moment he went pro. After New Orleans selected him with the first pick of the draft, the one-and-done Kentucky Wildcat inked a four-year, $23 million entry-level contract with the then-Hornets that included $10.5 million guaranteed upon signing, per Spotrac.

After his third season in the pros — in which he averaged a league-leading 2.9 blocks per game to pair with 24.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per contest — Davis agreed to a staggering $127 million deal to remain in New Orleans for five seasons beginning with 2016-17. The contract was fully guaranteed upon signing, per Spotrac.

But less than three seasons after the deal went into effect — two of which saw Davis make the All-NBA First Team but only one of which resulted in a playoff berth — Davis informed the Pelicans that he wanted out of New Orleans. With the looming threat of their star leaving in free agency the following year, the Pelicans had little choice but to trade him to ensure they'd receive something in return.

Ahead of the 2019-2020 season, New Orleans sent Davis to the Lakers in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Lonzo Ball, and three first-round draft picks. After winning a championship that first season in Los Angeles, Davis signed a five-year, $190 million contract with the Lakers — all of which was fully guaranteed at signing, according to Spotrac.

Davis collected an impressive $94,524,529 from the Pelicans over his seven seasons in New Orleans, per Spotrac. He's already added $172,083,865 in just five years in Los Angeles, amounting to a whopping $266,608,394 total from NBA contracts.

And that's just his income from team salary…

In addition to the hundreds of millions he's earned on the court, Davis has racked up several high-profile endorsements to bolster his income. According to Forbes, he has deals with Anheuser-Busch InBev, Beats Electronics, ExxonMobil, First Entertainment Credit Union, Frito-Lay, and PepsiCo.

Perhaps the most lucrative of his sponsorships is with Nike. Davis has sported the brand's signature "Swoosh" since he first joined the NBA, and he re-signed on a multi-year deal in 2017, per Forbes.

He's proven himself to be a wise businessman from the early days of his professional basketball career. In 2012, Davis told The Wall Street Journal that he's aware "there's a difference between being rich and being wealthy."

"Rich is you have a lot of money; wealthy is you have a constant amount of money coming in, every day you're making money," he added.

The latter, he said, is " the way I want to be," and he's taken steps to get there ever since. Davis — whose nickname is "The Brow" thanks to his signature unibrow — trademarked "Fear The Brow" and "Raise The Brow" ahead of the NBA Draft. He's also made some shrewd investments, including in the LeBron James-backed tequila brand Lobos 1707.

Forbes estimates that Davis raked in a collective $10 million from his off-field ventures between May 2022 and May 2023. He landed at No. 40 on the outlet's 2023 list of the world's highest-paid athletes with a total estimated annual income of $48 million.

And while the official sum of money Davis has to his name isn't available to the public, outlets including Yahoo Finance have cited $130 million as his net worth in 2023.

Shortly after signing his $190 million deal with the Lakers, Davis offloaded his $6.6 million home in Westlake Village to purchase a 17,000-square-foot mansion some 20 miles east. The eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom palace sits on 3.5 acres of property and includes a massive foyer with a glass domed ceiling, a home theater, a wine cellar, a 3000-square-foot entertainment space, a tennis and basketball court, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The big man has previously said that he's "a big car guy," per Sportscasting, and implied that he could get carried away spending money on cars without people like his parents keeping him in check. Even still, Davis has at least eight cars parked in his garage and/or driveway, according to ClutchPoints.

He bought a Mercedes-Benz S550 immediately after joining the NBA, he told WSJ. Davis also owns a GLS Class and a Maybach S Class from the German car brand. Additionally, the Lakers star owns two Porsches — a Panamera and a 911 Carrera GTS — as well as a Ferrari California.

The crown jewels of his impressive fleet include a Bentley Continental GT Convertible and a Rolls-Royce Wraith, which could have cost him around $600,000 combined. In total, ClutchPoints estimates that Davis' car collection is worth $1.4 million.

Davis began to embrace the high fashion game soon after reaching the NBA. He told GQ that watching his fellow stars dress to the nines night after night pushed him to "get with the trend and start wearing suits and looking fashionable."

When he's not wearing athleisure and sneakers — he has a collection that's "probably up there with the best of 'em," as he told Good Morning America — Davis can often be spotted sporting designer clothing and shoes. He's loves Louboutins, he told GQ.

He also loves to switch out the watches on his wrist. According to Watch Paparazzi, Davis owns at least 16 watches that cost multiple thousands of dollars apiece. Several, like the ones from Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille, are worth six figures.

The Lakers superstar has been married to his wife, Marlen, since September 2021, per People. The couple has three children together — two boys and a girl.

Davis brought his daughter, Nala, to the premiere of "Space Jam: A New Legacy." The father-daughter duo was also spotted sitting courtside at a WNBA game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky in 2023.

But for the most part, Davis prefers to keep his private life under wraps. He's spoken at length about the important role his family plays in keeping him humble, as he explained to the WSJ.

He told the outlet that he loves being in the position to take care of his closest family members — particularly his mother. His first big purchase as an NBA player was buying her a new house and car.

Davis has his own organization — aptly named the Anthony Davis Foundation — which seeks to encourage students to stay active and excel in the classroom, per OSDB. Through the charity, Davis matched donations up to $250,000 to help feed local frontline workers in Los Angeles during the height of the pandemic.

When he played in New Orleans, Davis launched "AD's Flight Academy" to connect with local youth and provide them with monthly activities such as bowling and laser tag, per Nola.com.

Additionally, Davis has worked with the Special Olympics, Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, and Help Feed the Frontline, according to OSDB.