Glen Davis is something of a polarizing figure among Celtics fans, a real love-hate guy. I love his willingness to take charges on defense. I hate his refusal to work on his post game. I love that he's worked hard enough on his jumper to make it a decent weapon. I hate how often he takes it (and so does Shaq, apparently). I love that he cares enough that Kevin Garnett can bring him to tears in the middle of the game. I hate that he's so sensitive that he would actually cry in frustration while sitting on an NBA bench.
You get the picture.
Some people are fond of saying that as fans, we're rooting for laundry. That may be true in certain respects, but it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there are real human beings wearing that laundry -- and that those human beings are often just kids trying to become men in a setting that isn't exactly conducive to it. Now that a significant percentage of the NBA is younger than I am, I look at players differently than I did five or ten years ago -- not as heroes, but as talented individuals who have flaws, the same kinds of flaws that some of the equally talented (but lower-profile and less well-paid) individuals I'm fortunate to call my friends have.
So I like reading stories like this one from CSNNE's Jessica Camerato that looks at how Davis is dealing with the NBA lockout. Take a look, and maybe gain a little better appreciation for what young NBA players go through in the early years of their development -- as basketball players, yes, but also as adults.
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