Davis has every right, like countless All-Stars before him, to request a trade. The sport’s best have anointed James their muscle-flexing role model and are taking greater control of their futures than ever before. Why shouldn’t they if they have the juice?

Once that happens, though, Davis’s team should be able to protect the franchise’s interests above anything else. New Orleans has not been granted that right.

It emerged Jan. 28 that Davis, through Paul, informed the Pelicans that he would not be signing the five-year, $240 million contract extension they were planning to offer July 1, and that he wanted to be traded instead. New Orleans spent the ensuing 10 days before the trade deadline fielding offers for Davis — mostly from the overzealous Lakers — but did so knowing all along that the pool of worthy offers would be wider if they waited until June.

When the deadline predictably passed on Feb. 7 with no deal, New Orleans was ordered by the N.B.A. to play Davis for the rest of the season — even though a precedent had already been set to give the team full control in similar cases involving Houston’s Carmelo Anthony and Memphis’ Chandler Parsons. Davis has played in four games since, routinely taking the proverbial air out of the Pelicans when he’s been on the court and, in his most recent appearance, injuring his shoulder.

The Pelicans don’t want Davis in the lineup because of the gloom his ongoing presence spawns, but also to try to avoid a serious injury that could adversely affect his trade value. The N.B.A.’s position is that they differentiate between true game-changers like Davis and mortal players. It is my position that they absolutely should not.

Two of the league’s main justifications in this case, after all, hold that the Pelicans would be willfully hurting the ticket-buying public by holding Davis out — and that the potential benefit New Orleans could realize in terms of improving its draft lottery odds in May violates “league rules governing competitive integrity.” Both ring increasingly hollow.