TAKING ‘BABY’ STEPS
Nets’ Garnett makes pitch to reunite with ex-teammate Davis
OAKLAND, Calif. — For years, Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett were fighting sidebyside.
Now they are fighting each other — for the right to sign former Magic forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who was bought out by Orlando on Friday.
“I’ve been around those guys for a few years, and based on their relationships, on Doc’s relationship with Big Baby and Kevin’s relationship with Big Baby, I would say … they both have had some up and down moments with Big Baby,” Paul Pierce said with a smile after Saturday’s morning shootaround ahead of the Nets’ game against the Warriors. “But hopefully Big Baby favors Kevin as a friend in this one.”
The Clippers and Nets have become the two frontrunners to snare the burly power forward, who was teammates with Pierce and Garnett and played for Rivers in Boston for the first four years of his career — including being a key contributor to the Celtics’ 2008 championship team as a rookie — before being traded to the Magic prior to the 201112 season.
With the Magic in the midst of a long rebuilding process, Davis’ presence was blocking playing time for secondyear big men Andrew Nicholson and Kyle O’Quinn, leading to he and the Magic negotiating a buyout of the final yearplus of his contract and hitting the open market.
He’s expected to make his decision on his new home before he clears waivers and becomes a free agent Monday, and Garnett has done his best to try and convince his former teammate to join forces with him in Brooklyn.
“A pitch, that’s what you’d call it?” Garnett asked Saturday. “I think Big Baby can help us and obviously I voiced my opinion on that.
“I guess Baby’s a hot commodity right now,” he added with a smile. “I do think he can help us. I think his basketball IQ fits into what we do here. He’s a talker. He communicates. He understands championship basketball. So yeah, he can help us.”
Pierce has been around Garnett long enough to know how persua sive his longtime friend and teammate can be, and said the deep relationship Garnett and Davis forged during their time in Boston together could be the thing that swings his recruitment in the Nets’ favor.
“He’s very convincing,” Pierce said of Garnett. “When he talks, people tend to listen.
“In the situation with Big Baby, he was like Kevin’s little brother. He wasn’t just a teammate … they were really close. We all share a relationship and a bond with the guys you win a championship, but also in their situation they were really close.”
If Davis does choose to sign with the Clippers or another team, however, that could mean the Nets would turn to Jason Collins, another former teammate of Pierce and Garnett’s from Boston. Both men lauded Collins’ professionalism, and said they would be happy to have him as a teammate once again and that any potential distractions from the obvious attention of Collins becoming the first openly gay player in the four major American professional sports wouldn’t be a problem.
“No, I don’t think it would be too big of an issue with our team,” Pierce said. “We have enough veterans in the locker room and really phase that out and understand we have a job to do, and to try and win games.
“We’re in the stretch run of the season, and that’s what’s most important to us.”
Garnett was even more strident about it, saying the only thing that should matter is whether or not Collins is still able to help a team win.
“I think it’s important that anybody who has capabilities and skill level to have a chance to do something he’s great at or one of the things he’s good at,” Garnett said.
“I think it’d be biased and, in a sense racist, if you were to take that opportunity from a person.”