Knicks guard Baron Davis let his guard down for a Q&A session with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: How do you and Jeremy Lin mesh?
A: I think our games complement each other.
Q: How so?
A: He’s an attack, attack, attack, attack. Like he’s speed and fast. I’m more so kinda shifty and at a different pace than his. I’m more like pass first than I am scoring. … He plays like north-south … straight lines. … I play like … in squiggly lines. Jeremy sets the defense up because he attacks, attacks, attacks and gets in the paint and puts a lot of pressure on the defense. Then when they’re used to that pressure, when I come in, it’s like, “Oh, he’s not going all the way to the basket. He’s stopping, and he’s finding.”
Q: Do you enjoy your role?
A: I can probably go down in history as the best backup point guard ever in NBA history (laugh). I don’t mind that at all.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve given him?
A: Don’t get high, don’t get low. Take it from someone who’s been up and down, and on covers of magazines and courted by everyone … have my whole picture on the side of an arena, and then have it taken off and kicked out of the town (chuckle). This is your stage, this is who you are, and this is your safe haven.
Q: Do you think he has a chance to be special?
A: I do. One, because he’s smart. He knows what he needs to work on. And he’s dangerous. He has speed, he has ability, he can finish, he can shoot and he works hard.
Q: What’s your best John Wooden story?
A: 2007 maybe, 2006 … him, myself and Mike Warren, we went and we had breakfast. You read the books, and you know the “Pyramid of Success,” and you know about the legend and the mystique, and to just sit down and have breakfast — it’s like he went to the same place every day, he wore the same thing, and he was just … so humble. And it just taught me a huge lesson in life, about no matter how much praise and how much glory, or what people say about you, at some point in life you still have to be yourself, and you still have to live with who you are and who you want to be. He was funny. … We talked about basketball, we talked about life, we talked about guys in the NBA with tattoos (laugh).
Q: What did he say about that?
A: He was like, “Do you have any tattoos?” I was like, “Yeah I have two.” He was like, “Well I don’t see ’em.” And I told him that I have one on my chest in the front and one on my back, and I told him what it was. And he was like, “OK, but I don’t like the guys with all the tattoos on their sleeves,” and I was like, “All right, Coach, that’s just the style nowadays.” (laugh). I remember afterwards, everywhere I was going, I was like, “Hey man, I just had breakfast with John Wooden!”
Q: Describe your meeting with Barack Obama at the Clinton Global Initiative.
A: That was another great experience in life. We were only supposed to visit for about 30 minutes, 45 minutes, so I flew to D.C. and just kinda sat with him and talked to him. We talked about basketball, we talked about politics, we talked about the world, and kinda like how I grew up and my story. … The conversation wound up lasting for about two hours. I remember before I left, I was like, “You’re gonna be the next president, and I’m so happy that I met you.” He was just so humble, he was just like, “We’ll see.”
Q: What was the young Steve Lavin like as the UCLA coach?
A: The young Steve Lavin was all over the place (smile). … He was just a fun guy to be around … and you could tell that he was learning the game. … We tried a little bit of everything, and that gave me more freedom out there on the floor. … Our UCLA system was really like a pro system , and he treated us like young professionals. Instead of like a father figure, he was like a big brother.
Q: Do you speak with him often?
A: He’s changed a lot (chuckle). He’s calmer. You can tell he has a lot more perspective, and he has a lot more, I would say confidence, in just his presence and his understanding of what he’s trying to accomplish. And he’s smarter as far as like the staff of people that he picked around him, the basketball minds that’s he’s picked around him. So I think that he’s become an even better leader, and at the time he was a young leader, and we would run through a brick wall for that guy.
Q: What’s your craziest recruiting story?
A: I was a big Kentucky basketball fan, and college coaches were calling my house and coming up to the school, so my grandmother got a second line. And in the morning, before I was going to school, my line rang, and I answer the phone, and this guy on the phone, he was like, “Hey Baron, this is Rick Pitino.” And I was like … “Who the hell is this playing on my phone?” He was like, “No, seriously, this is Rick Pitino, Kentucky basketball,” and I was like, “Man, you’re BSing. Who is this playing man, like I gotta go.” And he was like, “No, we want to recruit you,” and I was like, “Oh no! I’m sorry, Coach. I would love to be recruited by Kentucky!” But he never called back after that (laugh).
Q: Describe your first NBA coach with the Charlotte Hornets, Paul Silas.
A: I just thought that I was gonna just take the NBA by storm, and he was just like, “Nope.” (Laugh). I remember times that I would be dribbling up the court, and he’d be yelling at me, and I’d be yelling back at him (laugh), and then, the next day at practice, I’d be pouting, and he was like, “Oh, you mad, you mad at me? Come here, give me a hug.” He was really teaching me how to lead those veteran guys.
Q: What’s your lowest NBA moment?
A: I would say the first time I got traded from New Orleans to Golden State. I gave my heart to the organization. I played with loose cartilage in my knee. I played with a herniated disk that I didn’t find out was herniated until I tore my meniscus. And it came a point in time where they thought that I was faking my injury, and that just wasn’t the case. And the other lowest point is when I played for the Clippers. … I just stopped liking basketball. And then you dribbling down the court and having the owner like cuss at you and call you an idiot. I didn’t even look forward to coming to the games, and if the owner [Donald Sterling] came to the game, I definitely was not gonna have a good game because it was just like, how do you play when the main heckler in the gym is the owner of the team, and he’s telling you how much he hates you and calling out your name?
Q: How big of a trash-talker are you?
A: I crack jokes.
Q: Describe your on-court temperament.
A: I feel like basketball is my outlet. Basketball is an opportunity for me to get all my emotions out. So everything that I experienced as a kid, as an adult, the ups and downs of life, I just take it all out on the court. But that is the one place where I know that it brings me joy, and I can be happy. … But the killer instinct takes place, and then it’s just like … we have to destroy these dudes, because there is no losing (smile).
Q: How much torture was it for being out for almost a year with your back situation?
A: I considered retiring. … I couldn’t walk. I had pretty much written basketball off, and was more focused on just hoping and praying that I would be able to walk, and get around. … To be here and to be playing for the Knicks, which is an organization I’ve always wanted to play for … I remember I used to look at Stephon Marbury and I used to look at all the other point guards when New York was going through their struggles, and I’m like, “Man, let me get there! I know what those fans want.” They just want a team that plays hard and plays together and just tries their best.
Q: Why the Knicks over the Lakers and Heat?
A: Because I always wanted to play in the Garden. I’m a huge fan of Clyde Frazier and Earl Monroe. Every time I stepped foot into the Garden, it was just a magical experience. And then also, Mike D’Antoni being here … with Tyson [Chandler and Melo [Anthony] and Amar’e [Stoudemire] here, it was just like a no-brainer, especially in D’Antoni’s system. It was just like I had to give myself that one chance. … I want to put my name in the hat amongst the New York great point guards. … I think that my best is yet to come.
Q: You said you thrive on pressure. Is that because of your childhood in South Central L.A.?
A: Absolutely. … Every day was more like survival … seeing friends get locked up … seeing friends dying. … I think I’ve been to like 20 funerals, by the time I was 13, 14 years old. Basketball was always a release, so when the pressure comes, it’s almost like I’m used to those pressure situations. I’m used to being able to navigate my way through ’em. So, basketball, that’s just the fun part. You know that nothing serious (chuckle) is gonna happen. I don’t mind being the hero or the goat.
Q: Describe the riots.
A: Basically, the ABC Market that was burning down, flames were flying on my house. I remember as a child I had to take the water hose and water the roof so our house wouldn’t burn down.
Q: There was a basketball court in your backyard?
A: My grandfather built a basketball court for me when I was 3 years old as a Christmas present, and I would go back there every day all day and just play basketball. And my cousins, they were a lot older than me, they would take the pole, and they would stretch it to like 10 feet, and I couldn’t shoot. So they would basically pull the pole as far as they could out the dirt. My grandmother would go every night and water the dirt so the court would sink back to its normal height so I could go back and play basketball.
Q: Favorite players growing up?
A: Magic Johnson. … I just liked all the Lakers … and I did like Isiah Thomas.
Q: Your grandfather passed away when you were 14.
A: He was like my best friend, and he was the only real male figure in my life that I could count on. He was the one person that I could trust. He didn’t really say much, but just his presence alone, you knew that you were protected, and you knew that you were safe.
Q: Describe high school classmate Kate Hudson.
A: Kate was very energetic, and she was very wise and mature beyond her years. And she was a girl who pretty much knew who she was gonna be. … She was always like the person at school who would check me if I was doing something wrong, or call me out (smile) if I wasn’t paying attention in class. Or ask me, “Oh, did you do your homework, Baron? Did you study for the test?” And I’d be like, “No, let me cheat off your paper.” (Laugh)
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Julius Caesar, King Tut, Tupac.
Q: Favorite movies?
A: “E.T.,” “The Godfather,” “Coming to America.”
Q: Favorite actors?
A: Denzel Washington and Johnny Depp.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Meryl Streep.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Will Smith.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Tacos and burritos.
Q: What is your production company’s next documentary?
A: It’s called “American Schlaub.” It’s about men’s fashion, and how we’ve gone from the fashion capital of the world in the United States to like the laughingstock, and how nobody cares about how they dress or how they look.
Q: Describe your ”Crips & Bloods” documentary.
A: I wanted to make it for kids to see it in schools, because a lot of times perception of being in a gang and being a thug and being tough. Kids don’t really know what that means, and they don’t really know the stakes.
Q: Life after basketball?
A: Either acting, or I do want to be the head basketball coach at UCLA. That would be a dream come true. Carry on Wooden’s legacy.
Q: What will New York learn about you as a point guard in the next few months?
A: That I’m a better passer than what people think. And I’m a better player than what people think.
steve.serby@nypost.com