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Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis earned an NBA championship as a rookie with the Boston Celtics in 2008. He nearly had another one in 2010, but the Celtics fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.

Davis spent half of his eight years in the NBA with the Celtics. When asked how he felt about the Celtics losing to the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals, Davis said he “wasn’t happy, but I was happy.”

Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis came to the Boston Celtics in the deal for Ray Allen

Glen Davis of the Boston Celtics controls a rebound against the New York Knicks during the 2011 playoffs. | Nick Laham/Getty Images.

The Seattle SuperSonics selected Davis in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft. He played his college ball at LSU and was named SEC Player of the Year as a sophomore. He left school after his junior year, opting for the NBA.

The Celtics had a rough 2006-07 season, winning just 24 games. Danny Ainge desperately needed to turn things around and made a pair of trades to turn the Celtics into an instant champion.

Ainge swung a deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves to get Kevin Garnett. The Celtics sent five players, including prized prospect Al Jefferson, and two first-round picks. Ainge also traded for another All-Star in Allen. In that deal with the Sonics, the Celtics got the rights to Davis, who was the 35th overall selection.

The Celtics won the championship that season, piling up 66 wins in the regular season and defeating the rival Lakers in six games in the 2008 NBA Finals.

As a rookie with the Celtics, Davis played in 69 games, averaging 13.6 minutes. By his fourth season, he played 29.5 minutes and put up 11.7 points.

Davis explains why he ‘wasn’t happy, but I was happy’ when the Celtics lost in the NBA Finals this year

Davis was a recent guest on Vlad TV and touched on a variety of topics with host DJ Vlad. Vlad asked the former Celtics reserve how he felt when he saw the Celtics lose to the Warriors.

“I wasn’t happy, but I was happy,” Davis said. “The reason why is there’s different levels of the playoffs. Every level is a different level.

“First round is first round, but energy is a different level. Every level is so important. Now, you guys understand the feeling of winning the Eastern Conference Finals. You know what it takes to go to the Finals.

“Now, you know to close what type of energy you need to have — what you gotta be able to do. That experience is — with the right guys that experience it — they’re gonna win a championship because they hate that feeling of losing.

“I was happy for that learning experience. The future’s bright when you’ve got Jaylen Brown and Tatum really being All-Stars.”

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Mike Thomas

Mike Thomas spent 23 years on staff and 16 years as the sports editor at The Herald News in Fall River, Mass., before joining Sportscasting in 2020. Mike has a deep knowledge of and passion for the NFL and NBA, and he excels at interviewing sports celebrities to find out their Super Bowl picks.

A New England Newspaper and Press Association award-winning columnist and an avid sports memorabilia collector, Mike enjoys keeping up with all the sports news and the works of former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly. You can find more of Mike’s work on Muck Rack.