Not Just a Big Baby

I don’t watch college basketball much at all these days however last weekends games were wonderful as it showed just how exiting this game can be, especially when it’s played well by kids who are prone to mistakes, mental and physical, one second and bold courage in capturing the moment the next.

Two weeks ago I’d never heard of Glen “Big Baby” Davis, LSU’s 6’9” 310 pound sophomore. He is the key to a team that could be our next national champion. I was reading an article about him this AM and a quote from his coach John Brady struck me:

“He's probably the key to the personality of our team… Glen is an entertainer. He has to have positive vibes around him. He hates confrontations. He is always looking for someone to love him."

Why would a 20 year old basketball star be looking for someone to love him, I would assume that there are more than enough folks who want to do that. I decided to learn more about this kid they call “Big Baby”, very soon I found a very interesting story.

He’s clearly a very good athlete and has done much in his 2 years at LSU.

• The best running back to ever come through Baton Rouge (University High School). Running back? Here I am thinking it must’ve been tough to tackle Eric Dickerson in High School.
• Only focused on basketball his senior year, he was tired of 180 pound DBs taking him out at the knees, and was a McDonalds All American
• SEC’s Freshman of the Year last year, while weighing 370 most of the season
• This year he was voted SEC Player of the Year, averaging 19 points and 10 boards a game
• He lost 60 pounds between his freshman and sophomore year, why and how did he do this? He explains.
  "Basically it's hard to create a good habit of eating right because all your life you were able to eat chips when you wanted to, but my determination to be the best player I can be has grown tremendously. I finally figured out what I want to do in life, and that's perform and play basketball, so it's not a problem any more. If that's what I have to do to change my bad habits to be the best player I can be, I am giving up any kind of food you want. I don't want to eat nothing. I am starving, so basically it's changed me as a person, and it's hard work, man."

Spoken well! Big Baby sounds like he’s learning a lot about life as well.

Where did he come from?

• He grew up on drug-infested streets of Baton Rouge, about 5 minutes from the LSU campus.
• As a 9-year-old, his size forced him to play football with older boys, when he would cry, the coaches would admonish him for being a "Big Baby." The name stuck.
• His mother Tonya Davis played basketball, softball and ran track in high school. She was on the dance team at Northwestern State and eventually became a model. She is also a drug addict.
• He met his dad a couple of years ago.
• He, along with his older and younger sisters, wound up in a foster home when his mother was incarcerated.
• Of his mom he says, "Basically, for the majority of her life, she's been fighting demons, she's a recovering drug addict, but through the midst of that she still had love for her kids and supported what we did. Even with all she was going through, she would still tell us the right things to do. She would tell us, 'Your mom will always disappoint you, but God will never disappoint you.' It's tough to hear that sort of thing, but it's amazing that she would say that”
• Last year, Davis wore No. 34. This season, he switched to No. 0. Why? "To remind myself I came up with nothing."

I like Big Baby, not for his athletic gifts but for his perseverance, spirit, and will. Amazing how some good people happen to be good athletes. It’s also important to understand that all good athletes (or consultants, doctors, pastors, teachers, etc.) aren’t necessarily good people.
I don’t care who wins the dang thing this weekend, but I hope Big Baby does good and not only entertains, but continues to inspire. There so much more to athletics, and the kids who entertain us, than a score at the end of regulation.