The Orlando Magic knew what they were getting in Glen “Big Baby” Davis when they acquired him in a trade with Boston for Brandon Bass, but they probably didn’t anticipate the season-long antics along with him.
The shenanigans continued earlier this week and made its way all the way up to the league office this time.
On Wednesday, the NBA fined Davis $35,000 for an obscene gesture he made toward a fan during Monday’s Orlando win over the Toronto Raptors in Toronto. It’s the second time this season where Davis has been involved in an incident with fans on the road.
In Toronto, Davis reportedly gave fans the middle finger after he had been hit on the top of the head during the second quarter. While checking his scalp for signs of blood, Davis extended his right middle finger and licked the blood off his finger, a gesture apparently aimed at some heckling fans. Davis said afterward that he wasn’t flipping anyone off, but instead getting the blood off of his finger.
“No, I had blood on my hands,” Davis told reporters after the game.
“It was my middle finger, so I think they thought I was flipping somebody off, but I wasn’t. I was getting blood off my finger.”
Really?
The league office believed otherwise and hit Big Baby — who needed five stitches to close the cut — with a hefty fine.
The incident comes months after Davis allegedly had a verbal exchange with two fans during a road game in Portland back in December, not to mention being suspended by the Magic for two games in February after blowing-up at a team shootaround.
At that time, Davis’ frustration reached a boiling point surrounding his role off the bench in Orlando, but the frequent run-ins with basketball fans at the arenas around the league extends beyond the point of unprofessionalism.
This isn’t an act Big Baby has simply saved for Orlando.
Back during the 2009-10 season with Boston, he was fined $25,000 by the NBA for using “inappropriate” language toward a fan during the second quarter of a Celtics-Detroit Pistons game at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
Once reports spread about Davis’ middle finger incident in Toronto, Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations, was all over it.
It really is a crying shame.
But lets face it: Big Baby’s act is growing old this season in Orlando.
