Former NBA player Glen Davis was released from prison Thursday after serving 17 months for his role in a large-scale scheme to defraud the NBA Players’ Health and Benefit Welfare Plan.
Davis, popularly know as “Big Baby,” was one of 19 people charged with filing a raft of illegitimate reimbursement claims for dental and chiropractic care. Prosecutors said the plan paid the participants — 18 of whom played in the NBA — a total of $2.5 million between November 2017 and June 2019.
Despite being sentenced in May 2024 to serve 40 months in prison, Davis did not begin his term until that October. The judge in his case delayed Davis’ deadline to surrender after the former Boston Celtics center’s attorneys asked that he be allowed to finish filming a documentary to help pay $80,000 in restitution.
“He used his time productively while serving his sentence and took many programs during that time,” Davis’ attorney, Brendan White, told The Athletic on Friday. “He’s ready to become a productive member of society again.”
Davis will now enter the Long Beach Residential Reentry Management Office, more commonly known as a halfway house, to help him transition from his imprisonment. Part of that stay will involve financial management classes and drug treatment mandated in his sentence. Federal records show he is due to be released on July 9.
After he completes his time at the facility, Davis will face three years of supervised release.
“They tried to hold me down,” Davis said in a video on X shortly after his release. “You know what I’m saying? But I’m back, man. I’m back, baby.”
You & Diamond… Been playing gaaammmmeezzzz!! BIG BABY FREE!! WELCOME HOME KING KILO!! pic.twitter.com/R1CWkLLZsK
— Kris D. Lofton (@RealKrisDLofton) March 13, 2026
The Seattle SuperSonics selected Davis out of LSU in the second round of the 2007 draft and traded his rights to the Celtics alongside Ray Allen. Davis played eight seasons in the NBA and won a championship with the Celtics in 2008. His last season came in 2014-15 with the Los Angeles Clippers. Davis stepped away from pro basketball for two years, but returned to play one season in Canada in 2018. He also won a BIG3 championship the same year.
Also charged in the fraud scheme were Tony Allen, a six-time all-defensive-team player and member of the 2008 champion Celtics; Tony Allen’s wife, Desiree; Shannon Brown, a two-time champion with the Lakers; Melvin Ely, who won a title with the San Antonio Spurs in 2007; Sebastian Telfair, a celebrated high school player, and William Bynum, who played in the NBA for the 2005-06 season and again from 2008 to 2015.
Other former players charged under the federal indictment include Darius Miles, the No. 3 pick in the 2000 draft; Milt Palacio, Eddie Robinson, Ruben Patterson, Antoine Wright, Jamario Moon, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Charles Watson Jr., Anthony Wroten, Alan Anderson and Gregory Smith.
Former New Jersey Nets player Terrence Williams, who prosecutors said orchestrated the scheme, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2023.