Thursday, November 4, 2010

Big Toddler





          Glen "Big Baby" Davis has a nickname of an unfortunate ilk. The same as guys marked with monikers such as "Pork Chop" or "Pudge". They are nicknames usually earned in an embarrassing manner or by some physical feature/disability that they can't do anything about. These are the guys that soldier on, taking the shit with a smile while in their downtime secretly plotting the murders of lucky bastards like Clyde "The Glide" Drexler and "Pistol" Pete Maravich. I'm in temporary agreement with them when they throw there hands in the sky and wonder out loud to the Gods how  Dominique "The Human Highlight Film" Wilkins ever got such a sweet fucking nickname? He of course earned it.
          Glen Davis earned his as well. When he was a 5'6" 160lb  9 year old (It's hard to picture a 9 year old kid named Glen. It's easy to picture a 49 yr old Blockbuster Video Manager named Glen) he was already playing basketball at a high level with kids 3 or 4 years older than him, because he was simply to large to play with the other Pee Wees his age. Constantly playing with the older kids often rattled the young Davis who would sometimes cry. His sensitive coach would then tell him "Stop crying you Big Baby." and so a superb basketball player with amazing natural talent will forever be known for something he did as a 9 yr old. This story takes on a bit more steam as you flash forward to 2001 when when Baby is a 15 yr old rising star attending Shaquille O'Neals Basketball Camp at LSU (whoever thought to send him there was a genius). Shaq, who happens to be 7'1" 330lbs, challenged Baby to a wrestling match. Baby body slammed Shaq to the ground like a ragdoll and it made a huge impression on Shaq and subsequently LSU Head Coach Dale Brown. 2 years later Glen "Big Baby" Davis is a student as LSU. And by 2007 he was signed by an NBA Team.



           Baby has an easy personality to love. He's a charismatic and emotional guy. He has a flair for entertainment. The only problem is he cares about different things at different times and the only thing holding him back from success, stardom and All Star appearances is himself. 
            I'm sure no one was happier when the Celtics signed Delonte West than Glen Davis. For those who don't know, at the beginning of last season Baby punched his friend in the face 2 days before the season started and broke his hand. Last year was supposed to be his break out year, and he had a lot of hype after the Finals, and he blew it before the first game. He made him the resident fuck-up of the Boston Celtics and really turned a lot fans off as well. This was after 2007 when he cried after getting chewed out by Kevin Garnett but before his return when he promptly screamed "Suck my dick!" to a fan and it got picked up by the broadcast mic. Big Baby has tried to change his nickname to "Uno Uno" a couple times. This will never ever happen of course, but he seems to have embraced the moniker and even use it as an excuse to act,well, like a big baby.



       Judging by what we've seen so far ( and it's very early I know ) he seems to have put it all behind him. So far he's clearly been Doc's favorite sub. Filling in for all the Bigs in the starting 5 and proving himself to be a much better option than Jermaine O'Neal. Of course eating sushi at a rest stop in Ohio at 3 am is a better option than Jermaine O'Neal. 
        I hate it when  I hear a commentator refer to Baby as "undersized" because of his height because it's total bullshit. He's proven time and time again in the pre-season and in the first couple weeks that he can clog the lane just as well as the O'Neals, not to mention worm his way around the defenders a la Dennis Rodman and get a lot of boards on both ends. And most notably, if there were a stat for taking charges Baby would be  leading the league and probably averaging a triple double a week. That's the beauty of the current Celtics squad, everyone on the team excels at one thing. Doc can pretty much place his guys like chess pieces and see things before they happen, a talent which Doc has in spades, more than any coach in the league. Doc is so underrated but that's a whole other thing. Doc is as good as Phil Jackson was when he coached the Bulls. Nuff said.
         So this year I've got Big Baby as my favorite to win the NBA's Sixth Man Of The Year Award. He's got strong competition all over the league, not to mention the fact that Miami's Big One and his merrymen will gather plenty of praise for some asinine reason. Big Baby could score 10 or 15 a game, depending on minutes get 6 or 7 rebounds and take a handful of charges.
          That's more of an exciting player to watch than it sounds. 
          And if Glen Davis can keep Big Baby under control, it's all good in the jungle.
                 Ayo Baby.

1 comment:

  1. Love it. I think redsarmy has a post about baby having taken 9 charges already this season and the unofficial record last season was something like 55. If he keeps this up he'll shatter that.
    The C's are fun this year. Wish I got to watch regularly broadcast games more often...
    Anyway, I love the blog, please don't stop.

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