In Appreciation Of… Glen Davis

We are spending some time looking back over the Boston Celtics championship season… in an effort to truly appreciate the efforts of those involved.  In our sixth installment of our series, we continue our appreciation of the players.

Where do you start with Glen Davis?

To just focus on his goofy antics and attitude would undersell the effort he puts in on the court… which is significant.  To spend too much time on the reconstruction of his body, and the high energy he brings just by being in the game, doesn’t fully capture how wild a guy he is. 

My favorite Glen Davis moment, I feel, captures everything he is.  I don’t know the game or the date…. but I do vividly remember the scene.  Glen Davis, after making a hustle play, was greeted by Kevin Garnett.  KG gave him a congratulatory slap on the head.  Big Baby’s reaction?  “YEAH… HIT ME AGAIN!”

Well alright, then.

That’s Baby in a nutshell.  Intense, crazy, goofy.  I think even KG, the master of wild intensity, was taken aback. 

In many ways, I’m jealous of a guy like Glen Davis… and it’s not just because he’s living all our dreams by playing for, and winning a title with, the Celtics.  Baby seems to let life float on by without a worry in the world.  If anything weighs on his mind, we wouldn’t know it.  That’s not to say he’s not serious or he does things without forethought.  But he seems to take things as they come… live in the moment… and not get too down when things don’t seem to be going his way.  Its a very good quality to have, especially in a cut-throat business like professional sports.  There are too many people who are too worried about other things to fully enjoy the good moments in life.  Not Baby.  Its why his shirt came off .2 seconds into the parade. 

On the court, he’s deceptive.  He’s quicker than you’d think.  He’ll find spots down low to steal rebounds from taller opponents.  Davis is usually playing against guys who’ve got 2, 3, 4 inches on him or more… but he’s rarely, if ever, out worked for a rebound.  He can be a difference-maker off the bench if taken lightly.

Just ask the Pistons, who were torched for 20 points in 23 minutes in January.  Just ask the Lakers in game 6, who were given no chance to take advantage of Kendrick Perkins’ shoulder injury because of the quality minutes played by Davis. 

People who just look at his numbers simply won’t get him.  They’ll look at how he only had 4 double-digit scoring games and 2 double-digit rebounding games this year and think he didn’t do much for us.  But true Celtics fans know better.  We’ve seen plenty of games where Baby’s efforts off the bench were key to the Celtics holding a lead while guys like Perk and KG either got an extended rest, or stayed out of foul trouble.  Two 8 minute stints from Davis in any particular game might only result in 8 points and 6 rebounds… but they’d always be huge.  Big Baby’s minutes almost always produced good things.  He makes us smile, even laugh out loud, on and off the court.  And for that, Glen, we appreciate the job you’ve done in helping us achieve the ultimate goal… an NBA title.

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One note:  Steve Bulpett says Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins are declining their invitations to practice with Team USA.