"I hold myself up to high expectations. I want to be the guy out there that's not making mistakes. [But] the game of basketball is so fast you're going to make mistakes. When he talks to the team and my team is out there not doing well, I put myself at fault."
The "Big Baby Cries" headlines and You Tube clips did not embarrass him.
"Never," he says. "I'm an emotional player. I feel the game. I love the game, and it gets that way sometimes. It's about what you do after. How do you bounce back? I'm not ashamed. I'm never ashamed."
Former Celtic Cedric Maxwell says he loved what happened.
"It wasn't a good thing," says the forward-turned-analyst. "It was a great thing. It seemed to light a fire under him, and he's played better. He's more focused."
Davis says he has no close friends on the team but gets along with everybody. His mentor is his coach, Rivers.
"I think, most of all, when I'm farther down the line and I look back at what he put me through, I'll be so thankful," says Davis. "I just want to go out there and be an energy guy, that's my role."
But he marches to his own drummer. He does impulsive things, such as deciding that everybody should get a pedicure next door immediately after lunch. Sometimes he even surprises the fans. Last year in the playoffs in Detroit, he saw some fans playing touch football near his hotel. So he approached them.
"I'm like, 'Can I play with you guys?' They're like, 'Big Baby?' You never know what I'm going to do."
Soaking in the attention
Inside T & T Nails, he settles into a big leather seat next to his girlfriend and relaxes, checking his BlackBerry.
"My big toe looks dead," he tells the manicurist.
Told that some men think pedicures are for sissies, Davis shakes his head. Michael Jordan loved pedicures, he says.
"Everybody is entitled to their own opinion," says Baby, clearly enjoying the process. "I use my hands and feet every day. Ray Allen taught me you have to take care of your body."
Davis says he might take in a movie later, and he accurately predicted that "Slumdog Millionaire" was a lock for best picture. He also loves the works of William Shakespeare, though he is particularly shocked by the wickedness of Lady Macbeth.
"You don't see women like that," he says.
Worked out, fed, and now groomed with clear polish, Baby returns to his Waltham home. On the right of the NBA-sized sofa is the elliptical machine and on the left the Xbox 360 controller and big-screen TV. Big Baby chooses the middle, where he curls up with his mini-dachshund, Duke.
Another audible.
"It's nap time," he says.
His dream?
"I want to live forever in the game of NBA basketball, and you've got to work hard to do that."
Stan Grossfeld can be reached at grossfeld@globe.com.
