Shrek, son.

The nickname fits. For most of his career in Boston, Glen Davis has been a Big Baby. He has punched friends in the face, told fans to suck his man parts, and basically shown the world that he’s actually a 24-year old teenager in the body of a 6’9″ sumo wrestler. But he’s determined to grow up. At least on the court. (CSNNE)

“This is the year of finally hitting that line of maturity, becoming the player that I know that I could always be,” Davis said. “Throughout my career, my three years here, it’s been up and down. You’ve seen glimpses of, ‘Wow, this guy could start.’ Coming off the bench, of course it’s up and down. But this is the year of Glen becoming that whole player. That 10 years down the road, eight years down the road, hopefully get all-star status.”

“I don’t think about contract,” Davis said. “That’s when you don’t focus on what you need to focus on. I’m not trying to focus on that. I’m trying to focus on helping my team get back to the Finals and winning it.”

“I just try to look at the fact that Kevin Garnett is playing in front of me, and he’s going to be a Hall of Famer one day,” Davis said. “And learning from him. I’m young, I have a lot of years to play. I’m going to get my opportunity. Things happen. People go down. We don’t want that. But at the same time, my opportunity will come and when my opportunity comes, the world will know that I can play the game at a high level. I’m not worried about who I’m playing behind. I’m just trying to learn as much as I can so that when my opportunity comes to lead a team to the Finals or something like that, I’ll be ready. Because the people that came before me laid the foundation and helped me to be that great player.”

Even though the Celtics will have plenty of big guys, Davis might be the only one who can play power forward off the bench. (Sorry, guys, still not sold on Harangody. He couldn’t stop ME in the post, and I’m a 6’2″ shooting guard with negative athleticism.) Back to Davis, he will have a chance to have a huge impact this coming year. Let’s hope he keeps his word. I want to see Glen become the whole player, the mature player, he talks about. And please, Glen, I’m begging you: Shoot higher than 43.7% from the floor. You’re a big man. You’re better than that.