Baron Davis' Unlikely Comeback Starts in Basketball's Minor Leagues

As the courtside bouncey castle stood ready to deflate and 2,853 fans scooted out of the Bob Carpenter Center on Friday night, former NBA All-Star and current member of the D-League's Delaware 87ers Baron Davis happily sat in the locker room after his first professional basketball game in nearly four years.

The disparity between the NBA and the 87ers can be described with numerous cliches, all of which point out the quaint nature of basketball's minor leagues. But it's almost certainly true that the 36-year old Davis probably never had to wipe off his own wet shower sandals after a game in the NBA just to hand them over to a teammate, as he had to do after Friday's game. And he probably never had to catch a 5 a.m. commercial flight the next morning to Chicago so that his team could connect to their ultimate destination—Des Moines—for the back-end of a home-and-home.

But Davis' debut on Friday had been a true victory, the first step of a reclamation project that seemed unlikely months ago.

Davis' right knee, torn apart in a gruesome on-court injury in 2012, is now whole again, even though his mighty hops—which once made him one of the NBA's most-awesome dunkers—are all but gone.

Sure, he dunked in his Delaware debut (8 points, 4 assists, 3 steals in 19 minutes), but he barely got to the rim. The man who once embarrassed a misguided Andrei Kirilenko surprised even himself by throwing it down, two-handed and all alone on a breakaway. He had even promised before the game he would not dunk.

"I thought I was being chased by a pitbull," he joked after Friday's game. "I thought it was LeBron James coming to block me and I didn't want to lay it up. I just jumped and I felt like 'Alright, while I'm up here I might as well try it.'"

The Baron Davis comeback continues — Six Second Sports (@sixsecsports)March 5, 2016

It's unfair to compare Davis to his former self, a two-time All-Star who one season averaged 23 points and nearly 8 assists. That Baron Davis has been gone for awhile. The better question is: why was this Davis playing at the University of Delaware campus on Friday, and then in Iowa two nights later, all while being scheduled to appear in Bakersfield and Santa Cruz and Walker, Wisc. later this month?

This surely seems beneath him. To restart his career at this age, with more than $150 million in the bank and a seemingly driven vision for his post-playing days, might appear bizarre for those who don't know Davis. Kevin Young, his new coach, admits the D-League is what it is: "The minor league."

"The fact that Baron is doing this, the guy loves basketball," Young said. "Seriously. I take my hat off to him. I don't know if he knows exactly what he's getting into but to do what he's doing with his resume, the guy loves basketball. It's actually awesome."

The last time Davis played in the NBA—on May 6, 2012 as a member of the New York Knicks, in Game 4 of a first-round playoff matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers—he suffered a horrifying injury. Davis tried to squeeze between two Heat defenders in the paint in transition. His knee got caught, which caused him to collapse to the ground. Davis suffered a partial tear of his patella, along with a complete tear of his ACL and MCL. He lay on the ground on his right side, his hand cupping his right knee, as if to keep everything in place, until paramedics came out on the court and took him off on a gurney.

On the sideline, LeBron James grimaced. Udonis Haslem grabbed his mouth, aghast, and just shook his head. It was an ugly way to end a 13-year career.

"Nobody wants to leave the game on a stretcher," Davis said. "I never imagined that."

Now, Davis is trying to move past this gruesome final scene and create a new ending to his career. He is chasing the NBA dream again. The third overall pick of the Charlotte Hornets in the 1999 draft is attempting to climb his way back in.

Last week, the Sevens signed him out of the D-League's free agent pool, where he had sat unclaimed since January. In his first two games for Delaware, Davis came off the bench and played 40 minutes and scored 22 points, but showed little of the skill that made him among the best at his position during the last decade. While a video of his dunk elicited glee on Twitter, it didn't capture his faulty jump shot or that he could barely even get into the lane.

Still, the return itself was something unexpected, even for Davis. When he got hurt, at 32, Davis didn't think he'd play again and was ready to just walk away.

"I wanted to give myself amnesia as far as being a basketball player so I just didn't have to deal with the whole fact of leaving the game and all that," he said. "I tried my best not even to think about basketball."

Felt good getting back on the court… Happy to be playing again… 1st game back. We Will get better. — Baron Davis (@BaronDavis)March 5, 2016

That worked for a year and a half, he says, before the urge started coming back. He tried to get into shape by playing pickup games. He played in the Drew League—the famed summer league in Los Angeles.

There was incremental progress with his knee and his conditioning. Dino Smiley, the Drew League commissioner, saw Davis' intensity ramp up every summer. In 2013, Davis' first year back in the Drew League after his injury, Davis was still heavy and favoring his right leg, Smiley said. The next year, the brace on his right knee came off. This past summer, Smiley could tell Davis was serious.

He entered his own team into the league and arrived in his best shape yet. One day, with Metta World Peace guarding him, Davis scored more than 40 points.

"Everybody in the gym was like, man, Baron is turning the clock back," Smiley said.

But even as he kept working to a return, Davis wasn't sure he wanted to play again. He wavered whether to pursue it, he says, because he had never had such uncertainty before. He had no team and no idea if someone actually wanted him.

And retirement had been going well. He had made a documentary about the Drew League. He reportedly created a video game through a gaming company he co-launched. He got married and had two kids. He wasn't fully content, however.

"I'm not going to say I get bored but artistic stuff is just—basketball is a real creative vice that I create," he said. "Have some freedom, have some piece of mind."

Smiley realized this past summer that Davis wanted to make a comeback. Davis says he didn't truly decide until two months ago. He had passed on offers to play in the ABA and for a team in Finland. Instead, he signed with the D-League in January. Then he sat and waited for a team.

No one called immediately. Finally, last week, Delaware decided they needed help. They had lost their two best guards to the NBA and with no one else available who really piqued their interest, the Sevens looked at Davis. For a week, they considered whether to add him, before finally doing it last Wednesday.

While D-League teams can be used as a developmental and feeder system for their parent team—the 76ers, in Delaware's case—Young says this isn't the plan with Davis. They signed him to be a veteran presence and to try to help him get back to the NBA, although not necessarily with Philadelphia.

Just like everyone else, Young wanted to know why Davis was there. It was the first thing he asked him upon his arrival. He got the same answer as everyone else: Davis is trying to end his career on his own terms, and not ride off with his knee in tatters.

"I think he really feels that he can get into a rotation on an NBA club for next season," Smiley said. "I think he feels he'll be good."

If Davis can't get to the NBA this spring, he told VICE Sports that he'll continue his comeback into next season. Before Davis made his return official, Smiley thought he would wait to try to get an invite to a training camp next fall. Now, he says, it's about trying to secure a 10-day contract before this season ends.

"Everybody's goal here is to make it to the NBA," Davis said. "Right now, it's to use it as another stepping stone in my progress. I made it this far, which is crazy. Be present, stay in the moment and seize the opportunity. This is my NBA right now."