In this week’s Sports Illustrated, L. Jon Wertheim writes on Baron Davis’s use of the NBA as a platform to work as a social activist, movie producer and entrepreneur.

Wertheim writes: “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.”

Says Davis: “Basketball saved my life, it really did. I owe everything to this game. I could never be one of those players who signs a big contract and then doesn’t want to play. People look at all the things I have going on and say it’s a distraction. But, you know, they’re hobbies. Basketball is my stage, and the failing just makes you hungrier.”

It’s on page 48, if you’re curious to read more…