by David Aldridge, TNT analyst
From NBA.com
At age 8, Tyrus Thomas already had a fully-formed impression of Glen Davis.
“Who is this big-ass kid?,” Thomas recalled thinking, the first time he saw Davis, then 9, at the first day of practice at the Sports Academy rec league team in Baton Rouge, La.
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Fifteen years later, Thomas and Davis have both come a long, long way. Thomas grew and Davis shrunk, and Thomas developed and Davis survived, and Thomas was the second pick in the 2006 draft — while Davis, who had all the hype in high school and college, fell to the second round of the 2007 draft. And through it all, the two kids from Baton Rouge got close and stayed close. Now, they’re competing against each other in the NBA Playoffs.
“He’s my best friend,” Davis says of Thomas, the Bulls’ starting power forward.
From their shared beginnings have come NBA millions and starting jobs with their respective teams. In his third season, Thomas has found some of the consistency lacking in his game and given Chicago an imposing frontcourt look with second-year center Joakim Noah. But Davis has what Thomas wants: a championship ring with the Celtics. A contributor off the bench last season in Boston, Davis has had to become much more this season for the Celtics in Kevin Garnett’s absence. He isn’t the Big Ticket (Davis has called himself the “ticket stub” the last couple of years), but he has been solid at power forward.
“Me and him, we have a relationship where we don’t like to lose to one another,” Thomas said. “So it’s bragging rights involved. And now we’re in a situation where the season is involved. As much as I like to see him succeed, just me seeing his ring from last year, and being in the playoffs, being at the games (last year) when they played, it just made me want it even more. Whenever I played against him, whether it was in AAU, practice, whatever, we just brought out the best in each other.”
They played together as kids on that AAU team in Baton Rouge for two years, on a team that also included a quick young guard named Garrett Temple — whose father, Collis Temple, Jr., coached the team. Thomas left to play elsewhere after the first couple of years, but he stayed in the neighborhood — his uncle taught at Davis’s middle school — and ultimately befriended the big kid with the quick, quick feet.
Read the full article on NBA.com.