Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Baron Davis says he's definitely not as fat as people think

In the summertime, when the weather is fine, NBA players often remake their bodies. You know, adding the proverbial 15 pounds of muscle and what-have-you. But according to ESPN, Baron Davis put on enough weight for three summers, and it wasn't all muscle. From Tuesday's Insider column by Chris Broussard and John Hollinger:

For all the new faces, the Clippers will go only as far as veteran Baron Davis takes them. Davis, a Hall of Fame talent who's spent half his career underachieving, can put L.A. in the playoffs if he's engaged or in the dumpster if he loafs. Midsummer reports weren't good, as sources said the 6-3 point guard was up to 260 pounds, 45 pounds above his listed playing weight.

Zoinks! 260 is a lot of pounds, especially for a point guard. Sure, some of that is probably beard, but it's got to be hard to haul all that weight up and down the court time and time again. And considering Baron Davis likes to play fast, odds are carrying an extra four-year-old would slow him down.

Of course, according to Baron, he's not Kevin Love-sized quite yet.

Judging by that picture up top — taken in late July — Baron's looking pretty svelte, even in the beard. I'm not intimately familiar with the dimensions of Boom Dizzle's body, but that doesn't look like a 260 lb. man to me, and it's hard to imagine he'd put on a ton of weight in a month. Of course, Baron having to defend himself against allegations that he got fat is kind of troubling, because it means people read that and thought, "Yeah, I could see that happening, especially if he's been downing box after box of fattening Triscuits."

Nonetheless, it's good news for Clippers fans that Baron apparently isn't the fattest NBA point guard since Khalid El-Amin. He's got bad knees to begin with, and I'm sure hauling around all that extra weight wouldn't help. The Clippers have had enough trouble keeping people healthy without having to worry about Baron Davis' blood pressure. Not to mention, I'm not positive they could have found him any bigger shorts. He was already in the Priest Lauderdale section, just because baggy shorts look cool. The team's equipment manager probably let out a sigh of relief when he found out he didn't have to acquire an XXXXXL uniform. Via Ball Don't Lie