He Could Be Their Driving Force

This, we didn’t know.

Before his public debut as the hottest thing since sliced Kobe, Baron Davis leaped into the arms of teammate J.R. Henderson.

“J.R., I love you man, I love you man,” he shouted in the hallway outside the Bruin locker room Thursday.

Henderson looked at the kid like he was lint.

“Would somebody please calm him down?” he said.

Steve Lavin shrugged. Davis laughed and jumped on Henderson again.

“J.R., J.R., I love you man, I love you man.”

This, we didn’t know.

Shortly after Baron Davis’ first game as UCLA point guard--18 mostly breathtaking minutes in an exhibition against a team from Lithuania--he was still flying.

Talking as fast as some of those breaks he had just led. Nervously shredding a Gatorade label, dropping it in colorful pieces at his feet.

“I looked over at the bench tonight, and it’s like there was a big light over everything,” Davis said. “A light over Lavin, a light over the team. Like it was all a movie.

“I look down and see myself and I think, ‘Am I in a dream or what?’ ”

If that was rehearsed, then this UCLA freshman is pursuing the wrong major.

If Thursday night was all an act, then you best find the line for tickets.

This, we didn’t know.

Baron Davis is even more newsworthy outside a Chevy Blazer.

“You don’t think we would stick with him through all that stuff for nothing, do you?” said a laughing school official.

Before Thursday, he was nothing more than Jim Harrick’s poisoned apple.

Before Thursday, he was the kid driving a car once owned by the coach, the kid cruising in Santa Monica while things were exploding in Westwood.

Before Thursday, he was the kid who got no closer to the flames than his rear-view mirror, the kid who drove away untouched.

The kid who still enrolled at the school where he was in the middle of all that trouble.

That, we knew.

This, we didn’t know.

If you are a UCLA fan, he may be worth it.

Granted, Davis was playing against a Lithuanian team that was little more than a pick-up squad, a couple of guys from the States, one guy wearing worn red tennis shoes, a bunch of guys in ragged socks.

But the things you saw Thursday night, you could imagine seeing anywhere.

It didn’t take all 18 minutes. Davis needed, oh, about two.

Less than a minute into the game, he made a no-look pass that Henderson could have dunked, if he hadn’t been so stunned that he dropped it.

Forty seconds later, he soared to block a layup.

Ten seconds after that, he scored on a double-pump, right-handed fall-away layup despite being fouled.

Restraint prevents us from more detailed descriptions of a behind-the-back assist, a reverse layup, a soaring left-handed dunk over traffic, and a standing ovation.

“A lot of hot freshmen come into college and don’t live up to expectations,” Lavin said after the 92-80 victory. “With this kid, he could be better than expected.”

Nationally, considering Davis was this country’s top-rated point guard recruit, that would be tough.

But locally, considering some thought he was bad news, that would be a revelation.

“Constantly, day in and day out, I had a negative image,” Davis said. “The papers read like I was a crook. Like I was trying to take something from somebody.”

He shook his head, laughed.

“I thought this day would never come, when I would finally get a chance to just play,” he said.

For the record, Davis was never charged with being a crook, never charged with anything, never sanctioned or suspended or even scolded.

But also for the record, he looked bad, driving a car with Harrick’s personalized license plates, disappearing while Harrick imploded.

There is a sense that he knows this. There is a sense that he understands his role here will be more than just using the next two years to grow into a combination of Stephon Marbury and Jason Kidd.

“My favorite point guards have been Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson, the way they led, the way they made sure everybody had fun,” he said. “That’s what I want to do.”

This was happening even on Thursday.

He led the Bruins onto the court. He barked at them on defense. He bumped chests with them after baskets. He even took out his mouthpiece and chatted up the referees during free throws.

Then he chatted up media and well-wishers afterward, not worried that he was an 18-year-old freshman getting all the attention, expecting it actually.

This behavior will have to continue for Davis to be accepted here.

Right or wrong, more will be required of him than if he had enrolled at Duke or Kansas or anywhere where they don’t still talk about Jim Harrick.

“I like being at home, where people know me; I never thought about changing my mind and not coming here,” he said. “People who don’t know me, they can think what they want to.”

I think, with a full team, he can lead the Bruins to the Final Four.

By March, they could have that full team.

Kris Johnson, having worked hard since messing up, returns from the reported drug suspension in a couple of weeks. And despite reports otherwise, Jelani McCoy should be back from his suspension by January.

Apparently, merely the threat of taking away McCoy’s entire year has scared him back into his proper counseling schedule, a lapse that has caused the delay in his return.

By then, the two wayward ones will have discovered things have changed around there.

“All right now, about practice tomorrow, we have a choice of times, what do you think,” Lavin asked his team late Thursday, talking directly to the senior leaders on one side of the locker room.

“I know, I know,” shouted a freshman from the other side, and everyone listened.