The $500,000 Diet Seems to Work: Glen "Big Baby" Davis shows up to camp in shape

Last month, I blogged about Celtics forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis' new two-year, $5 million contract with the Celtics and the contract's inclusion of an annual bonus of $500,000 if Davis can avoid getting too heavy, which in the past has been a major problem for him.

Davis showed up to Celtics' training camp yesterday and it appears that he's in very good shape. Here's Rich Levine of Comcast Sportsnet:

We all have a good time making fun of Big Baby’s weight, but the truth is that it was a serious problem. Sure, he might be one of those naturally big-boned kind of guys, but he also loves to eat, and while the Celtics never voiced this publicly, the potential of Davis eventually eating himself out of the league was something that most definitely crossed their mind.

With this new deal, Davis will earn an additional $500K a year if he meets certain weight clauses, and from the looks of him Monday, Baby’s well on his way to scoring an extra half mil in the bank account.

I know this is hard to believe, but he looks cut. Yeah, there’s still a little of that Big Baby fat lingering around, but the weight loss is significant, and easily apparent.

“I’ve been working hard, man,” Davis said. “I picked up mixed martial arts; jujitsu, wrestling, boxing…. And it’s not only working out. I changed my diet a lot."

It appears that financial incentives--at least very, very lucrative ones--really can encourage people to eat better and exercise etc.

Interestingly, Davis isn't the only Celtic with weight issues, as Jeff Clark of Celtics Blog reports that the team signed former New York Knick and Chicago Bull forward Mike Sweetney to a non-guaranteed contract. Sweetney, who was a phenomenal player at Georgetown University and the ninth overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, has been out of the game for the last couple of years due to weight problems.