Baron Davis only played three-and-a-half seasons with the Golden State Warriors but on the first episode of this season of “Dancing With The Stars,” he paid tribute to his time in Oakland by dropping the Hammer on the competition.
Davis performed the cha-cha on the first night accompanied “U Can’t Touch This” by Oakland legend MC Hammer, dressed in Hammer’s signature parachute pants. The judges
gave him and his partner 10/20, putting Davis ahead of only Andy Richter and Corey Feldman, but tied with gymnast Jordan Chiles, Scott Hoying from Pentatonix and Zac Efron’s little brother Dylan.
No one gets eliminated on the first episode of DWTS, but next week will feature a double elimination. Davis is risking a first-round exit, not a completely foreign experience to a man who played for the Charlotte Hornets. Let’s hope Elton Brand doesn’t promise to vote for Baron, then change his mind at the last minute and vote for the Philadelphia 76ers.
After the show, Davis expressed concern that he wasn’t in good enough shape for the competition, but likened the practice sessions to “training camp, but with more sequins.” We assume he’s wearing a girdle under those sequins, like Davis wore to dunk on Andrei Kirilenko.
How have other NBA players fared on the show in the past? Let’s take a look.
Iman Shumpert: Won it all in 2021, becoming the first player to win an NBA title and Dancing With The Stars. This wouldn’t be the case if the producers of DWTS would finally give James Michael McAdoo a shot.
Clyde Drexler: 8th place. It is not true that Michael Jordan heard Clyde the Glide bragging about his dancing and did the exact same routine in front of him and shrugged, because he took Clyde’s rumba personally.
Rick Fox: Finished in 6th place after being controversially voted off, probably because the public never forgave him for dumping Vanessa Williams.
Derek Fisher: Finished in 11th place, mainly because Kobe Bryant wasn’t there to carry him to a title.
Metta World Peace: Eliminated first, though it seemed inappropriate when a fan threw a soda at him, even if he did clothesline his dance partner.
Lamar Odom: 10th place. He had trouble with some of the moves because his hands were very sticky from eating candy at every meal.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 7th place, lost in a double-elimination, which allowed him to get back to the “Veronica Mars” writer’s room.
Charles Oakley: Finished 15th, and was subsequently banned from all Madison Square Garden dancing activities by New York Knicks owner James Dolan.
Davis has his work cut out for him since he has to defeat multiple Salt Lake City Housewives, the Crocodile Hunter’s son, Topanga, and Hilaria Baldwin, who has a huge advantage on all other contestants when it comes to traditional Spanish dancing. We believe he won’t get eliminated — at least for one more episode.
