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Eaves: Are you ready to go?

Davis: Yep. Yep. It’s just… I don’t know, man. I think Baron Davis gets a bad rep for having a bad attitude when I’m just passionate about winning. I want to win. And frustration shows, and I think that the last couple years that frustration has shown on my face. And whether it’s an attitude or not, I just want to win. I didn’t come here to not win or to not get the Clippers to the playoffs. That was my goal the first day I came here and it hasn’t happened yet. This year we have a clean slate, we’ve got a great coach. He’s teaching us the right things, the right way play. (I’m) just motivated and looking to prove a lot of people wrong.

Eaves: Has your grandmother criticized you over the last couple years because the Clippers haven’t done well?

Davis: Just for my attitude (laughs). Just for being down all the time. She can see it in my face. She can see it in my beard too. “Get a hair cut. You look like you’re down. You look like you’re sad all the time. Be happy, enjoy life. You’re blessed to have the opportunity that you have.” She always says, “basketball is not everything.” And I say, “basketball is everything!” But she wants me to be a good person and a good role model to kids, a good big brother to the basketball kids that I mentor and good in my community. So, if I’m doing those things right, from a personal standpoint in my personal life, I don’t flaunt my personal life or anything like that, I just do what I do. On the basketball court, I just want to win. I think that has always been kind of like my scapegoat ever since I was a child, every time I play basketball it was always a release for me and a way to get my frustrations out—a way for me to express all my emotions and a way to leave my emotions out there on the floor and I think that the last two years have been very, very disappointing.

Eaves: You got a new coach this year and a couple weeks of preseason. What are your initial impressions of him and have those impressions changed since you’ve been working with him in the last couple weeks?

Davis: I think that we trust each other more, which is great, to have that; a relationship with your coach where you trust that he’s going to put you in the right position time and time again and he wants what’s best for you and he’s on your side and he’s in your corner. And for him to trust me that I’m doing the work that I’m suppose to do, I’m putting in the extra time and I’m listening and learning and trying to be the player that he wants me to be. Vinny Del Negro is just a great leader and if I can learn from him and if he can coach me to be a better leader and a better point guard… We just have a great coaching staff. Everybody’s engaged in making each other better, and when you’re playing on a team that’s the number one focus, is for everyone to want to get better, to work together to be better and everything else will work itself out.

Michael Eaves, Fox Sports