The question came from Lela Nicholson, who is none other than grandmother of Baron Davis. Here are some of the answers from B'Diddy courtesy of L. Jon Wertheim of SI.com:

In the summer of 2006 Davis, who was then with the Golden State Warriors, addressed the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., about health issues and the obesity crisis affecting minorities. He also attended the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City that September. During the trip he met with the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. Davis spoke with him about life in the inner city. "There's just this lack—lack of education, lack of safety, lack of opportunity, lack of health care," he says. "Barack really listened and engaged. He told me, 'If you're serious about restructuring the inner city, use your platform.'?"

When Obama announced his candidacy for president, Davis was quick to volunteer, hosting fund-raisers and cutting checks. (He and Obama aide Reggie Love texted each other congratulations on election night.) "Our country is at a tipping point, as Malcolm Gladwell would put it," says Davis. "I feel like this [election result] is a new beginning, for the U.S. and even for the world. It feels good to say you were part of something bigger than yourself."

Davis's other significant nonbasketball pursuit is his production company, Verso Entertainment, which he founded with Cash Warren, his friend and Crossroads classmate (who is perhaps best known as Jessica Alba's husband). The company's maiden project, Crips and Bloods: Made in America, is a full-length documentary directed by acclaimed filmmaker Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z-Boys), tracing the history of the gang culture in South Central. "I think Baron was particularly taken with it because this was his community," says Peralta. "He was like, 'If I had made a few different choices, that could have been me.'"

For more than a year Davis was in constant contact with Peralta, doing everything from helping to broker interviews with gang members to making suggestions for the sound track. Whenever he was in L.A., he and Peralta would watch footage together. The next day Davis would send Peralta pages of notes and suggestions. "I was really impressed by how deeply Baron was involved," says Peralta, "and how much he wanted something to be said about poor, black men and how they're not born wanting to pick up a gun and kill. At the same time, he listened, he wasn't dictatorial and he didn't overstate himself."

The film made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival last January and last month was named a finalist for an Academy Award nomination in the documentary feature category. (Verso's next project is a docudrama for HBO, ABCD Camp, starring James Gandolfini as sneaker executive Sonny Vaccaro.)

Davis is a principal in an Internet start-up, ibeatyou.com, which pits users against one another in various oddball competitions. (If you haven't seen the Davis--Steve Nash entry for Best Movie Trailer Spoof, go to YouTube and treat yourself.) He recently invested in Conga, a new club across from Staples Center. He's a spokesman for Jenny Craig. Oh, and he's planning a trip to China—"The next frontier, baby," he says—as part of his endorsement deal with Li-Ning, that country's top athletic apparel company. Otherwise, he has an abundance of spare time.

WHEN YOU'VE been involved in a successful presidential campaign, produced an Oscar-worthy documentary and include among your goals for 2009 brokering a truce among Bloods, Crips and Latino gangs, it's easy to see how tossing a ball into a basket against, say, the Milwaukee Bucks could seem somewhat trifling. And while Davis won't cop to it, there is a sense in some corners that his extracurricular activities have exacted a price on his basketball.

And guess which place facilitated Baron's interest in activism and played a role in his development in not just an All Star but one of the most polished role models among elite professional athletes in our sports landscape:

Davis's interest in activism was piqued during his two years at UCLA, where he met Jim Brown and took a class on actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. As a rookie with the Hornets, then based in Charlotte, Davis befriended Marshall Rauch, an entrepreneur and longtime North Carolina state senator. "On a lot of Sundays he'd come over and bombard me with questions about politics and economics," recalls Rauch, now in his mid-80s. "He absorbed everything, and you knew he was going to use it someday."

FWIW as mentioned in the first excerpt above, Baron is under scrutiny these days for the Clippers' less than stellar (which is not all that shocking) start this season. He is hearing lot of murmurs about how he needs to keep his focus on basketball and not forget what gave him his incredible platform. Yet knowing Baron, I am going to assume he will keep doing what makes him tick and what made him so successful in emerging as the heart and soul of the Golden State Warriors.

No matter what Baron makes all of us not (not just Mrs. Nicholson) proud to be a Bruin. It's a treat for all of us that one of our all time greats is getting a chance to star for his home town professional franchise while playing a larger than life figure off the court.

The only thing I'd like to imagine is what if Baron had a chance to be a Ben Ball warrior under the Caretaker of Westwood?

GO BRUINS.

I still miss this kid:

To show what it's like to scrap with Richard Hamilton every day, Arron Afflalo held out his arms.

"Look at this," he said. "I have the most scratches of all-time in Pistons history."

One of the highlights of the daily scrimmages is the physical and verbal jousting between the two shooting guards. On Wednesday, Afflalo knocked Hamilton hard to the floor and when Afflalo went to help him up, Hamilton angrily waved him away.

A few plays later, Hamilton aggressively forced Afflalo out of bounds, causing a turnover. What he said to Afflalo could not be printed in a family newspaper.

"I try to talk to him and I talk bad to him sometimes," Hamilton said. "But that motivates him. He never backs down. I love that from him. He ain't never going to back down and if he does, I am going to be disappointed in him. I tell him, 'In a  game if somebody hits you, you hit him back. We all got your back.'

Where again did AA honed that ferocious mentality?

Afflalo, in his second year out of UCLA, figures to play a more consistent role off the bench this season. His rugged and fearless defensive play might be his calling card and his ticket to more playing time, but he has worked hard to improve both his ball-handling and shooting skills.

That is from a profile in the Detroit News, which starts with these two words: “Bruisin’ Bruin.” Just a little example of why blue chip recruits like Anthony Stover are flocking to Westwood and high profile alums are constantly working in that magical four letter word in their hoops discussion.

I have written this before … I don’t think Bruin Nation has felt this jazzed about our basketball program since the days of Coach. Okay 66, Fox 71, we will never get back to the level of hanging 10 Banners and the streak of 88 wins .. but right now … this is a pretty damn good feeling.

It feels even more special, when recalling the struggle and growing pains we all went through during Howland’s first two and half seasons in Westwood. Just something to keep in mind, when you take in all the football actions tonight and rest of this first season of CRN.

I hope all the talented football players in our football program such as Harwell, Bell, Carter, ATV, Ayers, Coleman, Moore, Baca, Dye, Dean and incoming recruits such as Brehaut and Todd Golper read up a little on AA, JF, RH, CB, DT (non bandwagoners should have no problem figuring out the last three initials). If those kids can capture the same spirit of the legacy AA and his team-mates left behind in Westwood after helping Howland rebuild this program in his first three seasons, we are going to be all right.

Even though AA et al. didn’t bring home a banner, I will always remember those kids with the same reverence I have for Ed O and Tyus Edney. They are the ones who formed the foundation of the Ben Ball in Westwood. Hopefully the kids who are now playing under CRN and his new staff will work to build this program with the same sense of passion, dedication, and fiery competitive spirit that facilitated Howland’s masterful rebuilding efforts at UCLA.

Anyway, sorry for getting a little sidetrack from the AA story. But reading about AA, BDiddy’s quote, and the news of our latest high profile commit just drove home the point for me how good it feels when everything starts clicking for our program, after going through the growing pains under a competent head coach. When everything starts clicking in the world of Bruin football in next few tears, it will feel better than more than I can write in any blogpost.

GO BRUINS.

Apparently the Joker (aka Howland’s predecessor posing as a “UCLA basketball coach) is feeling good these days about his current gig at WWL:

Call it job security, something Steve Lavin ran short of toward the end of his tenure as UCLA basketball coach. This fall, Lavin starts his sixth year as an analyst for ABC/ESPN telecasts and he couldn't be happier -- not only because he's signed through 2012. It's just a great gig, said Lavin, 43.

While not ruling out a return to college coaching, Lavin said he has enjoyed developing a second career in broadcasting, working alongside Brent Musberger, whom he considers a friend and mentor.

Lavin, who was 145-78 in seven years with the Bruins, has grown into his analyst role and recently moderated an NCAA educational video on amateurism and eligibility issues that is geared for high school athletes who want to play on the collegiate level.

With the top high schoolers in the country in Las Vegas now for the Reebok Summer Championships and the Adidas Super 64, Lavin says it's a good message to be heard.

In the meantime, Lavin said Baron Davis, whom he coached in Westwood, will be a hit back in his hometown.

"Because of Baron's age and his NBA experience, I believe he's now mature enough to handle the challenges that come with returning to his hometown as a celebrity. No doubt he has a lot of friends who will want to be along for the ride. I'll hit him up for some tickets."

Uhm … I guess Lavin must have missed this from last November:

"As reported by Bay Area blogger Geoff Lepper of the Contra Costa Times, former UCLA point guard Baron Davis looked into the rafters at Pauley Pavilion last Friday during the Golden State Warriors' morning shoot-around and said, "We should have a banner up there: the only team to make the tournament without a coach." . . .

Somewhere, surely, Steve Lavin's ears were burning."

Just like he was clueless as a “fake head coach” UCLA, he remains clueless as an “analyst” on WWL. Guess we shouldn’t be all that surprise that this joker as found “job security” in a network that holds out Duke Vitale and Digger Phelps as college basketball “pundits.”

It's a good thing that he is settling right in and enjoying the "job security" in his current gig in which he can play his schtick by rolling out tired and stupid cliches that have nothing to do with basketball because he knows no college athletic director with a brain will hire him to destroy their program.

GO BRUINS.