Second Time Charm For Davis

Looking back on the car wreck that killed a friend and nearly took his own life, his decline and release by Dallas and decision to quit the game, and the fact that he now is the Washington Wizards’ starting center, no wonder Terry Davis is giving an extra helping of thanks on Thanksgiving.

“I feel like this is my rookie season,” Davis, 30, was saying the other day. “I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about basketball.”

More excited than when he went from being the undrafted protege of Charles Oakley (like Davis a Virginia Union alum) to a millionaire starter with the Mavericks five years ago?

More excited than the night when Charles Barkley, in his All-Pro prime, jumped over the scorers table after a game in Dallas to offer his hand and say, “You’re a hell of a player?”

Those moments seem like another lifetime for Davis, who only last Thanksgiving was out of the game and wanted nothing more to do with basketball. A month earlier he had been released by the Mavs heading into the final year of his five-year contract. He took his $2.28 million salary and went home to Richmond, Va., looking to get into a new line of work.

“When I left Dallas, I was frustrated,” Davis said. “I just wanted to get away from basketball. I thought that was it. I was ready to retire.”

Pacers maul Grizzlies

Chris Mullin scored a season-high 27 points and Reggie Miller added 21 as the Indiana Pacers defeated the Vancouver Grizzlies 106-85 Thursday night at Indianapolis. Indiana has never lost to Vancouver.

Ailing Knight expected to sit

Cleveland Cavaliers rookie point guard Brevin Knight was expected to miss tonight’s game against Charlotte because of a bruised right shoulder.

Knight fell during Wednesday’s game against Philadelphia.

He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a severely bruised shoulder.