Glen "Big Baby" Davis won't miss the entire season with his thumb injury, as initially thought possible. But he'll still sit for the six to eight weeks, according to Yahoo!'s Marc Spears, who spoke with Davis on Tuesday after the third-year forward underwent surgery earlier in the day.
While missing two months is certainly better than the entire year, it doesn't mean the Celtics are any more pleased about the injury, which Davis admits occurred when he threw a punch at a long-time friend after an argument escalated over the weekend.
Injuries, for professional basketball players, are sometimes just an unfortunate part of the business. You can't help it if an injury is sustained in practice, or even during a preseason game, if you're going out and giving maximum effort for the team that pays you millions of dollars to do so.
But what about off the court, when a player isn't doing anything related to basketball? That's when some personal discretion might come into play, and apparently, the Celtics' Glen Davis doesn't have any. Because he reportedly sustained a "non-basketball" injury, which, according to at least one report, just might keep him out for the entire season.
When Kevin Garnett first sustained his knee injury back in February, it didn't look to be something that would keep him on the sidelines for very long. He initially missed 13 games, then came back for some limited playing time in four contests, before he was shut down by the team, but presumably only until the playoffs.
Well, we all saw how that turned out.
A few weeks turned into the rest of the season, and here we are -- about two weeks before the start of training camp -- and KG still isn't back to playing full-court basketball.
Glen Davis entered the offseason as a restricted free agent with hopes of signing for the midlevel exception. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be -- the harsh economic climate has made it difficult for established stars to find that kind of money on the free agent contract, let alone a power forward averse to rebounding.
As the Celtics made moves to strengthen their front court, signing Rasheed Wallace and Shelden Williams, it began to look like they were prepared to move on without Big Baby, but that's apparently not the case. As reported by Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday night (and confirmed by the Herald and Globe this morning), Davis is close to signing a two-year deal to remain in Boston. According to the Herald, the deal may include a player option for a third season.
In our inaugural edition of the NBA Twitter mailbag, we've got some interesting topics to get us started. How will Shaq's ego fit in Cleveland? Is Kevin Durant getting the attention he deserves? And what's left on the Celtics' summer to-do list?
It certainly doesn't take a basketball savant to figure out what the NBA's main event will be on Christmas Day. The league typically uses the holiday to showcase its top teams (or juiciest story lines) to the masses, so the report out of Cleveland that Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James and the Cavaliers will face Kobe Bryant and the defending champion Lakers in the afternoon game should come as no surprise.
Last season, though, there were a whopping five games on the holiday slate. And since the remainder of the schedule isn't expected to be out until sometime in early August, here's a look at some contenders for the remaining four spots.
Rasheed Wallace is one of the last major free agent names to make a commitment, and if the reports turn out to be true (thanks to Hedo Turkoglu, you can never be too sure), he'll be suiting up to start the 2009 season as a member of the Celtics.
Our own Matt Steinmetz thinks that makes Boston the favorite to take home the title next year. But to me, that seems -- to put it as politely as possible -- a bit overly-optimistic.
What started this season as a chest-thumping NBA title defense is turning into an even more impressive testament to seat-of-the-pants resiliency and steely resolve.
The Big Three is long gone. The Gang of Unwanted has kept this one alive.
As it turns out, Glen Davis is not a Big Baby. He is a Magnanimous Man. And he's more magnanimous than I could ever be under the circumstances.
To be sure, what the husky 6-9, 289-pound Boston Celtics' forward did early Tuesday, two days after hitting the buzzer-beating shot in Orlando to even his team's playoff series with the Magic at two wins apiece, was absolutely unnecessary. Davis apologized for running into a 12-year-old boy, ensconced in Magic gear and seated courtside, as Davis turned to run to his team's bench to celebrate the biggest shot of his career.
When the Boston Celtics first assembled the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, they essentially told untested young point guard Rajon Rondo to just stay out of the way.
Today, they are asking him to lead the way.
Rondo, 23, has progressed so rapidly and so impressively this season that he has gone from a role-playing afterthought in their championship run of 2008 to the key in their surprisingly-stubborn defense of a title in 2009.
"You could say my role has changed a little,'' Rondo said earlier this week. "People look to me more. I'm being asked, and expected, to do more. And I like that.''
Glen "Big Baby" Davis won't miss the entire season with his thumb injury, as initially thought possible. But he'll still sit for the six to eight weeks, according to Yahoo!'s Marc Spears, who spoke with Davis on Tuesday after the third-year forward underwent surgery earlier in the day. 
Update 9/27: After undergoing surgery on his thumb, 
When 
It certainly doesn't take a basketball savant to figure out what the NBA's main event will be on Christmas Day. The league typically uses the holiday to showcase its top teams (or juiciest story lines) to the masses, so 
When the Boston Celtics first assembled the Big Three of 
